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Magazine Editorial

Magazine Design and the Beauty of White Space

If you’re an editor who loves a thorough, well-written piece, the whole idea of leaving white space in a layout — space that could be filled with more words — might not make much sense. The idea behind white space, however, isn’t to take away from your content. Quite to the contrary, white space and other important design elements should work together to create a synergy with the editorial that enables your stories to come alive and hit home with readers. If you’re trying to cram every nook and cranny in the design with something, you may need to step back and evaluate whether all that content really is adding to or detracting from the reading...

Magazine Publishing for Nonprofit Organizations: Engagement is Everything

While direct mail donation solicitations may form the backbone of many nonprofits’ fundraising efforts, are they enough to meet your organization’s financial needs, and could there be a better vehicle for moving your supporters to give? Many nonprofits are now turning to publishing a regular magazine to help them connect and stay engaged with stakeholders.

Magazine Publishing Tip: The Prototype Issue ‘Soft Launch’

So you have a great idea for a new magazine. You have some or all of the editorial copy ready to go for the first issue, but you don't have enough advertisers signed on to support publication costs. And, of course, you don't have the circulation numbers to help you market to prospective advertisers. In short, you've found yourself in a common conundrum faced by many new magazine publishers. So what to do?

Glossary of Magazine Design Jargon, Terms and Definitions for New Publishers

Here at Picante, we work on designing and producing magazine issues just about every single day. It occurred to me recently that, as part of our workflow, we rely on a lot of graphic design terminology that might come across as confusing jargon to new publishers — so I decided to put together a glossary of terms and definitions that hopefully will prevent some of that confusion.

Martha Jefferson Magazine cover design

Magazine Design and Publishing for Hospitals: How to Get Started

Magazines can serve a number of valuable objectives for hospital organizations looking to get their many public outreach messages out to the population of a local or regional service area. In this post, we lay out the path to help you get your hospital's magazine up and running, as well as cover some design tips to consider when developing the magazine's look and feel.

6 Steps to Follow When Publishing a Custom Magazine

Came 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.

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

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

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 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.