Nine things I've learned editing a print community magazine

This is Peter Houston’s fault. He recently published a list of nine things he’d learned from publishing the excellent #GrubStreetJournal with Joanna Cummings, and I was “inspired” sufficiently to offer a 10th. And then he suggested I should perhaps come up with my own, given that I’m the editor/designer of community news magazine C&B News…

Challenge accepted! 

1: Be confident about what you do.

By definition, a magazine is an editorially curated collection of information and opinion. It will have specific focuses and blindspots—thanks to its publisher, contributors, advertisers, and desired readers. That’s absolutely fine. Few readers want to be actively involved in a magazine’s creation; they just want to be able to enjoy the finished result, and so trust publishers to deliver that to them. It’s taken some years, but I’ve finally learned to be sufficiently confident in the validity of doing that. And if readers don’t like what you’re doing, they’ll let you know quickly enough—by not picking it up.

2: Good design is really important.

Especially in print, I firmly believe that we need to make our audience interested viewers before there’s any chance of turning them into interested readers. That’s why I spend as much time as possible making all the pages of C&B News (but especially the covers) look as good as they can. Given that I’m not a trained designer, I might seldom succeed, but at least I try: because I firmly believe that, if people don’t see something potentially interesting on a page, they won’t give that page any further attention. Or even pick it up in the first place.

3: Consistency Matters.

Whether you’re talking about page design, text templates or the usage of italics, quotation marks and capitalisation, consistency matters. Overtly “showy” design which breaks all its own rules from one page/spread to the next is (in my opinion) necessarily short-lived, or suited for one-offs. (Unless, of course, your house style IS to be “showy” at all times. In which case, go for it!) That said, you can take consistency too far: the most effective magazine templates are those flexible enough to enable some variation to keep things fresh and potentially surprising, while nevertheless still presenting a reassuring “signature” design. 

4: Guide Your Readers

Consistency also means keeping different sections of a publication in generally the same place (perhaps even on the same page numbers) from one issue to the next. Consciously or not, this helps regular readers to find what they want more easily, and it follows that, as “designer”, I should use all the subtle design cues available to me – formats, typefaces, colours, etc – to make it simple for them. Even with a monthly title, I’d go as far as saying that your flat plans should be fairly fixed from one issue to the next—especially if the overall pagination doesn’t change.  

5: Evolution, not Revolution

Continually evolving the look and feel of a publication is, of course, important, but the key point is evolution—a mainstream consumer magazine which radically changes its entire look and character between two issues either has an arrogant new editor or is desperate to attract new readers. (Specialist magazines can, of course, be entirely the opposite, totally changing format from one issue to the next, if that’s part of their raison d’être.) However, I think it’s altogether better to develop magazines over the course of years rather than months—if done slowly enough, even regular readers probably won’t particularly notice.

6: Love the Archive

The best place to look for ideas when redesigning a magazine, especially a “legacy” title, is its own archive. Immersing yourself in the back issues is how to sense its “character”. When I joined C&B News in March 2020 – then entering its 45th year – I didn’t much care for the Cooper Black used in the masthead. I soon discovered that particular typeface had featured consistently since 1976! My choice wasn’t “Which of the thousands of typefaces available should I use?”, it was: “Why not Cooper Black?” Actually, there was no real choice: typographically, Cooper Black IS C&B News. 

7: Cutting your Cloth…

I often describe myself as the “lucky 13th editor” of C&B News: lucky, because I’ve inherited a well-established, much-loved publication with an advertising manager who’s really good at the job, a local business community still willing to support a print magazine, and a sufficiently wide base of contributors and readers. Nevertheless, while The Currie and Balerno News – the limited company which publishes C&B News – even now regularly generates surpluses which are donated to local good causes, no publication – especially one totally dependent on the hard work of volunteers – can afford to cost more to produce than it earns.

8: Your first issue is always your worst.

Even if I had wanted to change anything in my first issue of C&B News (which I didn’t, see point of 5) I was too busy relearning how to use Adobe InDesign to even try changing anything. So, there was a genuine consistency between my predecessor’s final issue and my first, which I’m still fine about. I soon started making changes, though; and the more you work on a publication, the better it should become as you simply get to know “it” better. Actually, at the risk of being impertinent, I think “Your first issue should be your worst.”

9: I love print magazines!

I started contributing to school magazines, local newsletters and to what was then-called the “amateur press” as a teenager, eventually producing my own publications—back in the day when it was all about wonky typewriters, Letraset sheets and “cut ’n’ paste” involving scissors and glue. Then it became work. Editing C&B News, which is principally a collating job, was a return to those early days. And, from the start, I was reminded just how much I love the collation of disparate elements into an overall “magazine”. It’s like completing a jigsaw without knowing the finished picture until… it’s finished!