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9 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Magazine Designer

Whether you’re new to the magazine publishing business or not, finding a solid, reliable company to outsource your design with is one of the most important tasks in setting up your team. Magazines are anything but a one-time engagement — for publishers with dreams of seeing their publication take off, their design firm can be a pivotal partner in the success of the venture for years to come. So it’s important to consider your options carefully, evaluate each designer thoughtfully and find the best possible fit for your needs. Toward that end, we’ve put together some points for you to consider in your selection process:

1. First and foremost, does the firm specialize in magazine design, how many years of experience in magazine design do they have under their belt, and how many high-quality magazine designs have they published? Magazine design is a unique specialty in the graphic design field, and one in which a relatively small number of designers have substantial experience. While a tri-fold brochure or business card may suit almost any designer’s talents, magazine design and layout requires a sustained level of creativity and the ability to create a design rhythm within a publication that makes it come together as an integrated whole — and makes it a joy for readers to peruse.

2. Does the firm’s range of design styles mesh well with the magazine you plan to publish? Take a good look at a design firm’s magazine portfolio. Do their design samples reflect the target audience to whom you plan to market your magazine? Make sure the magazine designer understands who your market is and what their preferences are — that will be essential to engaging the audience and critical to the success of your publishing venture.

3. Are they capable of producing issues reliably on an ongoing basis, according to the frequency of your magazine? Producing magazine issues can be a hectic business, and for magazines published monthly or more frequently, the production cycle is continuous, and often more than one issue is in production at the same time. Printer and distributor schedules require magazine production schedules to be carried out with diligent precision and impeccable reliability, and magazine publishers can’t afford to rely on a firm that doesn’t have a stellar track record with regard to meeting deadlines time and time again. Be sure to check client references and get a feel for the designer’s workload capacity, reliability and responsiveness under pressure.

4. If you’re relatively new to the publishing industry, is the design firm experienced with startup magazines and in guiding new magazine publishers through the design and layout process? Especially during the initial issues, publishing a magazine can be a challenging experience that requires publishers to absorb a lot of information quickly — and the designer will often need to provide guidance and expertise in order to ensure the highest-quality publication. If you aren’t completely comfortable with magazine publishing yet, make sure your designer is willing to help walk you through the publishing process — this is another great piece of information that can be vetted with client references.

5. Does the design company have expertise in creating magazine media kits, to assist you in marketing your publication to prospective advertisers? If your magazine includes advertising, then the financial success of your venture likely depends largely on filling that ad space. Magazine media kits (sales kits) are an essential tool for publishers to quickly make their pitch to advertisers, and the importance of planning and designing a dynamite kit can’t be overstated. Since your media kit should be co-branded with your magazine design, make sure your designer also has substantial experience in designing for the marketing side of the publishing business — not just the editorial (content) side.

6. How important is cost? In graphic design, “you get what you pay for” is an old adage very much to keep in mind as you go about selecting your magazine design team. While you don’t necessarily need the fanciest design studio with the slickest sales staff and the most modern office furniture (all of which can be pricey overhead that adds to your project cost), take care with whom you entrust the success of your publishing venture. As mentioned previously, magazine design can (and ideally should) be a long-term partnership, to ensure the stability, reliability and consistent design quality of magazine production from issue to issue and year to year. Use your best judgment when it comes to the long-term potential in your designer — and again, be sure to check those references. Quality is paramount with magazine design, and automatically going with the lowest bidder might be a decision you regret in the not-too-distant future. Consider the big picture before you sign on the dotted line.

7. How attentive are they to detail? For better or worse, creative personalities don’t always make for the most detail-oriented workers. But with so many moving parts and so many details to the magazine production process, having a designer with diligent attention to detail is of the utmost importance. Magazines contain a lot of content, and if you’re constantly dealing with someone who can’t quite manage the minutiae, mistakes are almost certainly going to be made — mistakes that will ultimately make you and your publication look less than world-class. So look for a healthy balance in your design firm. You’ll need a team with both top-notch creativity and a solid ability to get things done right — every time, on time, and without continual prodding on your part.

8. Does the designer provide in-house editorial services like copyediting and proofreading? A magazine’s editorial quality — which includes the flow, style and proofing standards of the copy, is every bit as important to the overall image of the magazine as the design quality. Nothing turns readers off like a story filled with grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and mediocre writing. Having your design firm handle the copyediting and proofing process can be a real time-saver and reduce the number of players in the overall magazine production process.

9. How well do you “click” with the person who will actually be in charge of your magazine production? And have you even spoken with them personally? After taking all the other factors into consideration, sometimes consulting your gut feeling is a good idea. Seeing that you’ll be working so closely with your design and layout team to produce issues on an ongoing basis, what kind of “vibe” do you have with them, and do you foresee a good working relationship going forward? And for that matter, have you actually talked to/met with the actual people who will be working on your magazine every day? You may have struck up a good conversation or two with the design firm’s sales rep, but if the project will soon be turned over to a surly designer or lackadaisical production assistant, that relationship may quickly lose its luster. Know who you’ll be dealing with, and be sure to speak directly with the folks who will actually be in charge of turning your vision into a work of art. Get a feel for them and how they like to work. And get a sense for how they work under pressure and how they respond to the demands of curve balls like a late story submission or a last-minute copy change. Soon that working relationship will be the foundation of your magazine’s production workflow, so be sure to familiarize yourself well with your partners. Once again, references are a great way to get this information from an unbiased point of view. Taking this and all the points mentioned above into consideration, you should be able to make a wise, informed decision and hit the ground running with the design of your first issue.

6 Steps to Follow When Publishing a Custom Magazine

6 Steps to Follow When Publishing a Custom MagazineCame across a great Business 2 Community article today for new publishers looking to put together a custom magazine design — includes tips on getting your content organized, creating your dynamite content (which is absolutely essential in today’s competitive magazine marketplace), and working with your magazine designer.

My one suggestion for new publishers to add to the story would be to bring a designer on board at the beginning of the process — even before the editorial is under way — as design considerations can often have a huge influence on the nature of the editorial itself. For instance, if you’re looking to create more of a graphic, photography-driven magazine with a modest number of pages (due to printing budget restrictions and other factors), you should probably consult with an experienced magazine designer to establish recommended word counts prior to writing the editorial. But no matter what your vision is for the magazine, having your editorial and design expectations aligned properly is essential to creating a world-class publication.

Regardless of the subject matter of your mag, planning is key to the success of your entire venture. And beyond what is covered in the article, of course creating a professional magazine media kit to market to prospective advertisers is essential. We’ve also put together our own magazine publishing primer and compiled a list of Top 10 magazine printing tips for new publishers.

Original story — Source: Business 2 Community

Magazine Design Quality: Where It All Starts

To graphic designers and veterans of magazine publishing, the topic of this blog entry might seem a bit obvious. But this post is meant for those of you new and budding publishers who might just be in the early stages of figuring out how to start a magazine and how to choose a magazine designer. Or maybe you haven’t made it that far yet. In any case, if you’re looking for a little guidance on how to get your magazine up and running, we’re here to help.

Quick — what’s the first thing you notice about a new magazine on the rack? The nameplate? The cover shot? Perhaps. But I’d argue that the first thing you notice, whether you’re consciously aware of it or not, is the design. All that is visual in a magazine (which is just about everything, short of the feel of the paper stock) is dependent on the design and layout. No design element exists on its own, and each feeds into a mag’s overall look and feel, creating an integrated whole that speaks to the reader’s eye. And while you might not be a seasoned magazine designer yourself, I’ll bet you know great design when you see it. Of course, what makes “great” design varies somewhat on the magazine’s subject matter and target audience — what might look fantastically elegant in a magazine targeted to upscale soccer moms would likely look completely out of place in a mag marketed to teens. But that doesn’t mean that each distinct magazine brand shouldn’t have a well-thought-out, beautifully planned design that engages its target readers and pulls them into the content. Any magazine, regardless of subject matter, can and should start with a gorgeous design.

Content is crucial, of course — these days more so than ever, with countless sources of news and commentary available in so many different media formats, online and off. You can put together the world’s best magazine design, down to the very last custom detail — but without a consistent source of insightful content to keep readers coming back for more, I doubt you’ll be able to win over your market and catch on like wildfire.

The converse is also true, however. You can craft the world’s most brilliant commentary, but a flat, lifeless, amateurish design won’t draw readers in and keep them engaged long enough to find out just how brilliant your insights may be. And just as you probably know great design when you see it, you — and your readers — probably know mediocre design as well. So the very credibility of your publication at first glance rests on the quality of the design itself, before the first page has even been turned or the first paragraph has been read.

Now take a step back. Beyond just considering the look of your publication on its own, keep in mind how much competition it will have — on the newsstand, on coffee tables, or even (in the case of trade magazines) on your readers’ desks at work. If you want your magazine to be noticed, picked up and pored over, you’ll need to have a solid, professional design that grabs hold of your particular audience. So in any sound magazine business plan, the design has to take top priority and be considered at least as thoughtfully as anything else.

In short, if you’re serious about launching a magazine or redesigning an existing one, design isn’t the place to cut corners. Just as readers may judge a book by its cover, they will certainly — especially at that first crucial buying decision point — be judging your mag by its design.

Top 10 Media Kit Tips for Magazine Publishers

For entrepreneurs and organizations new to magazine publishing, media kits are an indispensable marketing tool that will serve as the face of your publication with prospective advertisers. You may only have one chance to make an impression with any given ad buyer, so getting the design, feel and messaging of your media kit right is essential to hit the ground running with your marketing plan.

To help get you started in the right direction, we’ve put together our top 10 media kit tips to take to heart as you plan the launch of your magazine (or even if you’re just looking to make your existing media kit more effective and compelling).

1. Engage Them Quickly. Advertisers receive tons of media kits, and your chance to catch their eye is fleeting at best. Remember, your entire business model may be resting on the early success or failure of your media kit, so don’t be tempted to just wing it and hope for the best. Establish credibility instantly with a great media kit design and grab their attention quickly with compelling headlines and graphics. Your media kit is a marketing piece, not an editorial piece — so it should be bolder and designed to compete with all the other media kits and publishers in search of advertising dollars. Engage your audience, keep your pitch concise, and get your key messages across quickly.

2. Get Noticed. Emailing media kit PDFs is a quick, efficient, cost-effective way to get yourself in front of advertisers, and this method can work just fine in many cases. But for larger advertisers with bigger ad spends, you may need to crank it up a notch to get noticed. If your marketing budget allows, consider having a custom die-cut pocket folder created in which to distribute your information, complete with business cards, a tri-fold brochure, slip sheets and any other information that will help you make the sale — this should add credibility and flair to your presentation and help you stand out from the competition more than a simple (and easily disposable) email attachment.

3. Benefits, benefits, benefits. A classic marketing mistake many businesses make is focusing too much on features (the what) and not enough on benefits (the why) — spending too much talking about themselves and their offerings and failing to address the needs of their customers. While you do need to let advertisers in on your vision for your magazine and talk a bit about who the target readership will be, ultimately their decision to advertise will come down to how well you communicate the benefits of your publication to their bottom line. So don’t spend too much time on fluff in your media kit — get down to business quickly and  highlight as many advertising benefits as you can.

4. Position Yourself. In addition to emphasizing your publication’s benefits to advertisers, go one step further and make it very clear to prospects what it is that makes your publication unique, and why they should advertise with you over a competing magazine. For instance, are you taking advantage of a hot new emerging trend? Or tapping into a segment of the market that is currently underserved by magazine publishers? You will likely already know how you plan to position yourself with readers — make sure you communicate that to advertisers as well.

5. Show Your Stuff. Particularly for new publications, establishing credibility with advertisers, as mentioned above, is critical. So including covers and spreads from an actual magazine issue (even if it’s your first issue in progress) is essential. You can go on at length about why an advertiser should commit some of their budget to you, but ultimately they’ll want to see exactly what your publication will look like — and what they’ll be associating themselves with by advertising. So the initial magazine design really should be undertaken prior to, or simultaneous with, the media kit design.

6. Prototype It. Even better than including some of your gorgeous magazine artwork in the media kit, producing an abbreviated prototype issue (either in PDF format or printed digitally in limited quantities) to distribute to advertisers can be very effective in getting noticed, earning credibility and establishing your image as a real, tangible product that’s more than just a fledgling idea.

7. Break It Down. While developing your publishing business model, you will likely already have gathered copious amounts of market research data pertaining to your target readership, including demographic information like buying power, age, gender, ethnicity and so on. For advertisers, that kind of information is critical to making an ad buying decision, so be sure to spell it out in your media kit with as many relevant bullet points, tables and charts as possible. What’s more, showing this kind of market research up front shows that you’ve done your homework and aren’t just launching your magazine on a wing and a prayer, once against boosting your credibility.

8. Cover the Bases. In addition to the background info, data and benefits-rich sales pitch in your media kit, be sure you make it as easy as possible for prospects to convert into ad buyers. Make sure your advertising rates and technical specifications are finalized in time to include in the media kit, and feature this information on a dedicated page of its own. That will allow interested advertisers to make decisions quickly and efficiently — and, once they’ve made the decision to buy space, communicate the necessary specs to their ad designers. Also, make sure your contact information is prominent and easy to find in the media kit, in case ad buyers need any clarification prior to giving you the go-ahead.

9. Think Beyond the Printed Mag. With digital and online technology playing such a pivotal (albeit emerging) role in today’s media market, be sure to consider all your options for maximizing your advertising reach and capabilities. Will you be releasing a Flash-based flipbook of the magazine, complete with interactive, media-rich ads? Are you planning to sell ads on your magazine website/blog to boost revenue? Have you considered having the magazine distributed and sold via outlets like Apple iTunes or Zinio? If any of these are in your master plan, make sure advertisers know, in as much detail and with as many benefits as possible, what your vision is for growing your advertising platform and allowing them to reach their target markets in new and innovative ways.

10. Integrate Your Media Kit into Your Master Marketing Plan. Starting a new magazine — or revitalizing an existing one — is as much about instilling confidence in advertisers as anything else. And while a gorgeous, well-thought-out, thoroughly planned media kit is an essential part of any magazine’s business plan, ultimately you’ll need to use common-sense sales strategies and form person-to-person relationships with ad buyers to see your venture take off. So even after sending out your eye-popping media kit to the world, don’t just expect advertisers to necessarily beat a hasty path to your door. You’ll need to put in some effort, work the phones and pound the pavement to leverage your media kit to its fullest potential as a powerful tool in your overall sales arsenal.

Magazine Publishing: Top 10 Printing Tips for New Publishers

Magazine PublishingOffset printing has come a long way since the days of typesetting, film and color separations. Gone are the days of camera-ready art and Stat cameras — these days, at least on large presses, it’s all digital.

While the technology has improved a great deal over the past couple of decades, printing still consumes a large percentage of any given magazine publishing budget. As we’ve been reading in magazine industry news quite a bit lately, iPads and other eReaders haven’t exactly wowed consumers to the point that we’re swearing off the printed page. Tablets and other similar devices may add another outlet for publishers to deliver their content, but at this point we’re a long, long way from turning the traditional magazine publishing distribution model on its head. (After all, some of us still love our printed mags.) And we firmly believe that print is here for the long haul.

So for publishers looking to maximize their profitability, minimizing printing costs (without a significant drop in quality or reliability) is essential. At Picante, we’ve been dealing with printers for many, many years now, from small corner print shops to behemoth mega-printers and everything in between — so we wanted to share a few tips to help you avoid some common pitfalls while choosing a printer and getting your magazine ready for primetime.

1. Educate yourself on the printing process.
Modern printing can be a highly technical business, and all the details involved in print bids can be a bit intimidating, if you don’t know industry lingo or aren’t familiar with the process through which a magazine design makes it to the printed page. And knowledge is most definitely power in this case. With so much of your magazine publishing budget riding on a successful printing experience, do yourself a big favor and take a crash course, courtesy of Google — or find someone who can provide you with some guidance along the way. It’s not necessary (nor is it practical) to know every paper stock, coating and technical specification out there, but it is a good idea to have a general understanding of how the printing process works, from design, prepress, plating and ink transfer all the way through binding, finishing and fulfillment. And if you’ve never done so, contact one of your local printers (preferably a shop you’re getting a quote from) to arrange for a tour of their plant. Seeing the operations in action for yourself can be a great way to connect the dots and enrich your knowledge of how the magazine publishing industry works.

2. See the quality for yourself. While Googling in search of appropriate vendors for your magazine publishing venture, you’ll undoubtedly find dozens of slick, well-designed corporate websites that extol their respective virtues. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really tell you a thing about their quality standards, since print is, in its finished form, an inherently offline medium. To get a better feel for the quality of any given printer’s work, you literally need to see and touch their printed products for yourself. Request a packet from their sales rep, and most reputable printers will be more than happy to send you samples. While this doesn’t necessarily guarantee that your own magazine will print as nicely, getting some samples can be a good way to get an initial look at a printer’s general capabilities — and can keep you from wasting thousands of dollars on a subpar printer that isn’t up to your standards.

3. Check references. This step is perhaps more important than any other in the vetting process. Magazine printing can be a major investment, and as with most suppliers and vendors, success often hinges on how responsive, proactive, knowledgeable and accommodating the team is that you’re dealing with. When it comes to customer service, don’t just accept lip service — the best source of objective reviews come from a printer’s own clients. Request a few client references and contact them directly to get their impressions on how well the printer delivers on its promises. It’s not uncommon to find printers who produce a wonderful product but are more than a little frustrating to work with. And conversely, there may certainly be printers with an extremely helpful staff and a less-than-stellar printed product. Ultimately, you’re looking for the best balance of quality, reliability, service and cost, and references are a great way to get this information quickly. Again, doing your due diligence at this stage can save you headaches and, of course, lots of money that might otherwise be wasted.

4. Consider sustainable, environmentally friendly printing. Obtaining FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification for your magazine printing and using eco-friendly inks are two factors to consider in the planning stages. According to its website, the FSC “sets high standards that ensure forestry is practiced in an environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable way” — in short, helping to ensure that paper suppliers who meet their standards aren’t cutting down trees indiscriminately and wastefully. Achieving FSC status — and earning the right to display the FSC logo in your magazine — requires a bit of extra work for the printer, but most modern printers should be able to accommodate your request. Another eco-friendly option to consider is using soy-based ink instead of traditional petroleum-based ink, a distinction that can also be included in your mag to show your concern for environmental issues. These days, with sustainability on the minds of so many consumers, making use of eco-friendly practices in publishing your magazine can help earn you credibility with your target audience — on top of the clear environmental benefits it provides. So while you’re in the midst of making decisions on the specifications for your print run, you might consider exploring these options with your print rep to see if they would be a good fit for your magazine.

5. Define your specs and price it out. Getting print bids can be tedious — if you’re not organized. At Picante, we use a standard form when sending out for bids that includes all the vital info needed for printers to prepare thorough estimates. Once we’ve nailed down the print specs for a given magazine, we simply send it out to as many companies as are appropriate for the job. The form generally includes info on the type of printing (digital/offset); inks (usually four-color process, but occasionally making use of additional spot/PMS colors); dimensions; paper stock (printers can recommend a stock, if you don’t already have one in mind); bleeds (to ensure complete ink coverage after the trimming process); page count (you can specify a range, if you’re not sure yet); print run (quantity — again, you can specify a range here); varnishes/coatings; type of proofs required (soft/digital vs. hardcopy); whether or not a press check is required; finishing services required (trimming/folding, etc.); binding (usually saddle-stitch or perfect-bound); and occasionally other details required in special circumstances. We usually price any given job out to 3 or 4 printers, at a minimum, to ensure that we’re getting a good fit for a client’s budget — some printers, due to press size and other factors, may be more cost-effective for certain types and sizes of print runs, so it’s always a good idea to choose a cross-section of printers with whom to quote the project. Again, though, cost is just one of the crucial factors in arriving at a final decision, so don’t be tempted to make your decision on pricing alone. Note that many printers will charge extra — sometimes hundreds of dollars — for a hardcopy set of proofs prior to the actual printing. If you’re comfortable approving the job for print on a computer screen instead of on paper, you can cut your costs a bit there.

6. Get a dummy. There are scads of paper stock brands, varieties, weights and qualities out there. Because printers often buy large quantities of certain brands of stock to achieve economies of scale, they will likely have their own unique paper inventory for you to choose from. Be sure to communicate the quality and feel of paper you’re looking for in your magazine — an experienced sales rep will know their stock well and should be able to make an appropriate recommendation based on your needs. If you have a specific magazine with a paper stock you’d like to match as closely as possible, send it to the rep so they can see exactly what you have in mind. When we request bids for clients, we also typically request a blank (unprinted, paper-only) “dummy” of the magazine (based on a given page count) to give them a good idea of what the finished product will feel like — how heavy the magazine will be, how thick (or light) the stock will be, and even how the paper will sound as you flip the pages — all important considerations, if not ones that readers will ever consciously consider themselves. A dummy helps you visualize what your finished mag will look and feel like in readers’ hands. Perhaps the biggest tangible benefit of this step is avoiding buyer’s remorse later on — you may think you’re saving on costs by going with a flimsier stock, but if you never hold it dummied up in your own hands, you might regret the decision later and end up with a printed magazine that isn’t quite what you had in mind.

7. Keep your designer in the loop. As you negotiate the terms and specs of your project with printers — which often takes place while a magazine is going through the design and layout process — remember that changing a seemingly harmless detail like page size (to accommodate a particular printer’s press size, for example) can have a major effect on the look of the magazine itself. For example, if you originally intended to go with a wider, nonstandard size but later change your mind (for budgetary or other reasons) and opt for a more standard size, that will significantly impact any design work already under way — and could result in additional layout charges in order to accommodate the new size. Your designer is a key player in the printing (and overall magazine publishing) process, so be sure to run your specs by them and keep them informed of any potential changes.

8. Proof, proof, proof. Once the layout process is complete and your magazine designer has delivered the digital files (artwork) to the printer, any changes requested thereafter (including typos and other editorial changes) will typically result in additional per-page charges from the printer — charges that can really add up, if you end up making edits to multiple pages. The best ways to avoid those kinds of charges are: (1) hiring a professional copyeditor to edit and proofread your copy before going into the design phase and (2) proofing every detail of the magazine — more than once if possible — before sending the files to press, to eliminate the need for many changes once the files are sent out.

9. Know your designer’s prepress procedures. “Prepress” is the process of getting your magazine’s digital design files ready and outputted (usually in high-resolution PDF format) for transmittal to the printer. Designers surely have their own respective ways of going about prepress, some more detailed and thorough than others. Just like with #8 above, changes made to files due to prepress oversights will likely cost you, so it’s always a good idea to know what your magazine designer’s prepress procedures consist of. At Picante, we run our files through 15-20 different checks, depending on the project, to make sure the files are as perfect as possible before leaving our studio. Our prepress includes everything from ensuring that all design elements are aligned properly, to doing a thorough spell-check, to checking the accuracy of all page number references, among many other steps. Ultimately, this helps to ensure a high level of quality and result in an immaculate end product for our clients. We take great pride in our designs, and prepress is a key finishing step in the magazine publishing process.

10. Check it out (on press). These days, with the high level of printing quality afforded by the latest technology, what is known as the “press check” or “press okay” in the industry has largely become a thing of the past. Doing a press check means that you physically visit the printing plant while your magazine in on press, so you can approve each form as it comes out — literally, hot off the press. Press checks are a great way to spot any mistakes (especially major ones) potentially made by the printer after your final approval (for example, dropping a photo or some other design element from a page). In recent years, we’ve found that these types of errors have become a rarity — however, they do still occasionally happen. So while a press check isn’t totally necessary, it’s not a terrible idea, either. The benefit here is obviously to avoid a printing miscue and to ensure the quality of the actual printed piece before it’s trimmed and bound. Printers do sometimes charge extra for a press check, however (since it slows down the printing process), so whether or not to schedule one is really up to you.

Why the Magazine Publishing Industry Is at Its ‘Shawshank Redemption’ Moment

As covered in a recent piece by Richard Prince at The Root, Jet magazine has announced plans to make its print content more timely and relevant by adding opinion and perspective pieces to its editorial lineup. Perhaps it’s obvious to say that this is a savvy maneuver, but then why hasn’t Jet been doing it all along?

Today’s media consumer has a ridiculous number of options — online, offline and otherwise — for spending his or her precious few daily moments of downtime. And when I say “downtime,” even those moments are often spent wielding multiple gadgets, multitasking, texting, emailing and so on. We live in a pretty sad state, attention-wise, and competition for attention is exactly the battle each information outlet wages every single day. As media options proliferate, the battle grows evermore heated, and magazines in this era will have to work harder than ever before to bring in and hold onto a devoted readership.

Premium Channels in a Rabbit-Ears World

Print publications face many of the same challenges the three major U.S. TV networks were forced to confront with the advent of cable. Way back when, cable TV rather suddenly began to splinter the traditional oligopoly on televised content into dozens (and now hundreds) of choices for viewers. Today, though, all media outlets — including magazines — are up against a staggering number of potential online sources of nearly cost-free information, fun and distraction. That is the new reality, and there’s no sense pining for a simpler time. The battle for eyeballs can be brutal, and to succeed magazines will have to adapt or surrender — like it or not.

And for print mags, up against so many digital bloggers and 24/7 news outlets, the even more daunting challenge is maintaining relevancy without being able to respond to the latest events in real time. They are constantly operating, in effect, with two strikes against them.

So given that print magazines can’t compete with the web on speed-based relevancy, how can they shore up the loyalty of their reader base and keep their faithful coming back for more? The key, as is said so often lately, is consistently generating dynamite content — rising above the maelstrom of everyday news items and other background noise, wowing the pants off of readers, and elevating a publication into the realm of coveted premium content.

In short, magazines need to think, act and produce like the premium cable channels of the publishing world — to innovate to the point that a profitable critical mass of readers will happily buy in to their service because it’s just that damn good. Dominating the competition’s content should be jobs one, two and three, and any publication without a laserlike focus on content is probably ultimately doomed to find itself on the long and growing list of defunct titles. Before all else, magazines need to push their editorial and design staff to ensure that each and every issue is something people want. I’m in the magazine design business, so I can certainly attest to the fact that design can add a great deal to the visual appeal and readability of a publication, and design is an essential piece of the overall product. But even so, unique content and insightful commentary still take center stage and represent the vast majority of a publication’s value to its readership. The idea that “content is king” is fast becoming a cliche in the media industry these days, but it has also never been more true.

Print? Digital? Who Cares?!

Somewhat distinct from the content issue, much has been made lately of the print-versus-digital question in the magazine industry. All too frequently — and particularly in pieces about the rise of tablet magazines — authors regurgitate the notion that “print is dead,” that the bread and butter of magazine publishing is in the throes of yielding to a surging digital revolution. Clearly, to those with a vested interest in making iPads and other tablets a fixture in households around the world, and perhaps for those covering the latest technology trends, hastening the demise of the print magazine industry would be a wise objective. I’ve written at some length on why I think all the anti-print clamoring has been dramatically blown out of proportion. But whether you prefer print magazines over digital or not, is the whole print/digital debate truly fundamental to the success of a publishing venture? Sure, if tens or hundreds of millions of tablet users emerge in the next several years with a rapacious appetite for digital magazines (which certainly hasn’t happened yet), then obviously publishers will need to invest heavily in maximizing their digital delivery capabilities. But with tablets still in their infancy as a media-consuming tool, it seems many publishers are placing an undue amount of attention on their digital operations. With the troubles magazines have experienced the past few years (along with just about every other industry), some publishers may be looking to tablets to revitalize revenue streams and even “save” publishing as a whole. But they are completely missing the point.

Whether a magazine is delivered on paper, a tablet, a smartphone or otherwise, far more important than putting every new bell and whistle into the delivery mechanism is making sure that the content of the product itself is unquestionably superior, unique and valuable to a large supply of readers. The tablet market is growing, for sure, and readers who want their magazines delivered digitally will seek them out — so the ratios of printed vs. electronic distribution will inevitably adjust themselves naturally. But no matter how desperate publishers are to capitalize on the tablet trend, they simply aren’t going to win over hordes of readers without focusing on dynamite content first. A title’s delivery mechanism will always be far less important than its caliber of content to maximizing sales numbers and growing readership. Period.

Back to Basics

I’d be willing to make a prediction: If you’re a magazine publisher today, and your first objective isn’t blowing the doors off the rest of the mediasphere with insanely fantastic content, you’re probably not thinking about the right things, you’re probably not thinking boldly enough, and your publication probably isn’t going to fare too well — or as well as it could. Regardless of format, readers will always gravitate to — and stick with — a source they know will deliver the goods, time and again.

So yes, the move by Jet certainly makes sense. But why stop there? Each and every magazine out there should right now have a standing order with its editorial staff to think big, think bold, innovate the heck out of its content and find new ways to connect with readers. Anything short of that is tantamount to giving up eyeballs to the other guys — and that, in today’s media, is death. And to paraphrase Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption, it’s time for publishers in this challenging marketplace to either get busy living, or get busy dying. Because there simply is no more time to lose in a battle that at the moment, for many publications, is unquestionably being lost.