It's easy to get confused in the latest web design trends: Internet technologies are constantly improving, which is why designers today have a huge set of tools at their disposal. And while the richness of available opportunities forms the basis for innovation, it also creates the risk of being uprooted.
Every art form has traditions. In the case of websites, these are newspapers.
Newspapers appeared long before the Internet. And today, it is newspapers that can open our eyes to many principles of web design - from the Gutenberg Principle to grid systems (grid systems) of layout and placement of the most important content (above the fold).
As you delve deeper into the basic design principles of paper newspapers, you may notice multiple overlaps with website layout rules. The origins of many of the best web design practices can be traced directly to the design of print publications. Unsurprisingly, websites are designed for users to interact with them—and (ideally) return to them repeatedly as a source of information. Newspapers have been playing this game for centuries and winning.
Anyone with even the slightest interest in web design will benefit from knowing how print design works and why it works.
This post will take a look at several newspaper design principles and show how they relate to the best web design practices.
How it all started
The first handwritten news bulletins covering political and economic events across Europe appeared in Italy in the 16th century and were most popular in Rome and Venice. At the same time, the name "newspaper" came into use - after the name of a small Italian coin (gazzetta), which was usually paid for a handwritten piece of news in Venice.
With the invention of the printing press, another era began. The 17th century brought a new force to the world - newspapers, which were somewhat similar to the current ones. The authorities had the opportunity to timely inform the subjects of their empire or kingdom, advertise services and publish news, cover the policy of the state from a favorable side, thereby influencing the worldview of people.
Newspaper founders worked diligently on the rules for running a new business, and since the content of the issues changed daily, the rules had to be abstract - general and applicable to all newspapers. These concepts were mostly about form—not content—and how readers process information. The parallels with web design will soon become clear, and hopefully the lessons too. Let's start with the obvious rule - "above the fold line."
"Above the Fold Line"
If you've worked with online layouts, you've probably heard the expression "above the fold", meaning the content you see first when you visit a web page (without scrolling).
It's a newspaper term, and it goes back centuries.
Due to their size, newspapers were laid out on the counters folded in half, so the term "above the fold" literally meant the content visible above where the printed sheets were folded in half. It's the first thing potential readers see. This is often the only chance for a newspaper to impress, to get people to buy the issue because they want to know more. If you don't want to pick up a newspaper because of the front page, then why even think about buying it?
The space "above the fold" is the area for placing the main story, the most important piece of information in the entire newspaper, what should "hook" the reader. This place is usually reserved for , key articles of the issue and enticing images. However, there is no clear standard for what should be posted in this area: everything that is - without distorting the truth! - can attract the attention of readers, can be in this important place.
"Above the Fold" - the paper's first and most important response to the "pub test" - is what you would mention first if you were retelling the contents of what you saw to a casual interlocutor over a glass of beer in a pub.
The same applies to websites, which is no doubt the reason for borrowing terminology. "Above the fold" in web design (what you see on your monitor without scrolling) is your website or landing page's answer to the "pub test". What is the single most important thing that visitors to your landing page/website need to know? (While this rule is especially true for landing pages, it applies everywhere.)
According to a study of 25 million browsers last year, "above the fold" is the most frequently viewed part of a web page, with engagement peaking just below it. From newspapers to landing pages, online stores and social networks, the same principle applies everywhere: to attract attention.
Gutenberg Principle
So, you've got someone's attention. Congratulations. But for further success - conversions - you need to know about the Gutenberg principle, or Z-pattern (Z-pattern).
Advocated by the "father of newspaper design" Edmund C. Arnold (more on this great personality later), the Gutenberg principle is a good rule of thumb to follow when thinking about how people interact with your content, whether it's in print. on paper or displayed on the screen as pixels.
The Gutenberg principle states that when people encounter homogeneous content (“wall of text”, “sheet”), they start studying it from the top left corner and end at the bottom right corner, “jumping” their eyes from right to left as they move down one line. This stems from an idea known as Reading Gravity. We Westerners spend our lives reading from left to right and "scrolling" our eyes down and to the left to get to the beginning of the next line. Newspaper design tends to take this reading into account.
Below is the April 13, 1961 issue of the Teacher's Gazette, reporting on the first human spaceflight, arranged according to the principles described: the reader's eyes follow the "reading z-pattern" (red arrows), and the main story is placed above the fold line:
This rule has been used in typography for decades, long before the World Wide Web existed.
Today, the same applies to web design.
Of course, the gravity of reading is not as undeniable as, say, gravity in the sense of gravity. The most astute reader of this post might have noticed that the Gutenberg Principle refers mostly to “homogeneous” content. Moreover, this rule is not based on some innate quality of a person - it depends on the culture and rules of reading.
So, in countries where people read from right to left (for example, Arab countries), the same principle is applied, but, as it were, in a “mirrored”, reverse form:
It is worth noting that this mattered less in the days of typographical printing. The distribution of paper newspapers is usually limited to a certain geographical region, so they can be printed in the main language of the population living there. On the web, your site can be visited by anyone, anywhere, so it's important not only to understand the Gutenberg principle, but also to design websites that change the way content is presented depending on the language in which they are read.
The Gutenberg principle is not the only rule A that describes the way people interact with the content. For example, eye-tracking studies have shown that the Internet is also widespread, with increasing "jumping" as readers progress through the web page.
All of these patterns are good to know, but they are not rules, but trends. good design Newspapers don't blindly follow the Z-pattern, no matter what happens - it uses the principle as a basis. The same applies to web design. When in doubt, remember these rules, but do not worship them. The human eye has an ingrained reading gravity, but great design leads, not follows.
The adaptability of the web opens up amazing new possibilities for presenting content. The lessons learned from the Gutenberg principle are the starting point from which the game can and should be started. As you know, exceptions only confirm the rules.
Page header or header
Each newspaper has its own typographic plate (from the English. nameplate - "nameplate") or "nameplate" - the header of the publication in the form of a catchy picture on the first page, containing the brand name of the publication and information about the release, such as the publisher's address, release date and etc..
This is practically the only thing that is guaranteed not to change from one issue of the newspaper to another.
Many of these plates are in themselves iconic and imprinted in the public mind. “Schild” is an integral part of the publication, declaring: “We are not that other newspaper. We are this paper." It communicates who you are and what you do.
The plate also serves as a directory of sorts. Newspapers often place teasers in their headlines pointing readers to articles that don't quite deserve a front page spot but are still worth knowing about. The signboard is key person in the space “above the fold line”, as if telling the reader: “Hold on. Continue reading. Here is something interesting for you." If you take into account the Gutenberg principle, then the “nameplate” is likely to be the first thing readers see.
Almost every site has its own "nameplate", only on the Internet it is commonly called a header (Header). Every social network, online store, entertainment site and, of course, have it:
It would be strange for a website not to have one. On the Internet, the header of each page of the site should include a menu and a logo leading to the main page, since many users come to the site not through the root domain, but in other ways (if we are not talking about landing).
This is one of the reasons why the online "nameplate" tends to be more in demand than its printed "ancestors". He is able to do more, which is even good, given that the requirements for him are higher. But in newspapers and in web design, the main purpose of the header is the same: draw attention to the brand and direct users to what they will care about.
Grids and blocks with content
Newspapers are pure content. From cover to cover, they are “stuffed” with information that should be well structured and well presented. is the basis of the design of the newspaper sheet. Just as water takes the form of a vessel, the content of a newspaper fits into a grid system.
Columns are the most important element of this structure. Depending on the format of the newspaper (tabloid, broadsheet, etc.), it can contain from four to fourteen columns. It rarely happens that the content of the newspapers somehow does not fit these columns. The text "flows" down a column and then resumes in the next one. Images can span multiple columns, especially if you want the illustration/photo to stand out.
Today's newspapers have long gone beyond the rigid information flow that you would find in earlier versions. It is now generally accepted that newspaper content should be organized into blocks, with each story forming its own frame. This organization of the page structure is called modular layout, and there are several reasons why this approach has become standard:
- First, it's easier to structure . If each story is placed in a clean, tidy space, they can be rearranged with relative ease. When you're trying to post dozens (or hundreds) of articles in a limited space and time is running out, this is a godsend.
- Secondly, the modular layout makes the content easier to understand. Good information is highly valued only when it is presented in an accessible way. Blocks create “pages on pages”, where each piece of information is independent and understandable.
These standards have always played a role in web design, but understanding them has become especially useful in currently, when the powerful CSS Grid layout system appeared in the arsenal of designers. Grid systems not only offer guidance on how to organize content as readably and clearly as possible, they also show how blocks of content interact with each other and with ads. Wrong alignment can look really really goofy, while it's a joy to the eye.
But as always, there are differences. For example, on the web, transitions rarely occur (when you reach the bottom of a column and continue reading at the top of the next column) because web pages can scroll down indefinitely.
Accordingly, the type of layout described tends to make less sense on the web because it leads readers to have to scroll up and down to scroll through one piece of content, which is rather counterintuitive. Such "jumps" may only be acceptable for lists and small amounts of content, but this practice is usually due to the physical limitations of printing equipment. The main value of a grid system in web design may well lie in "stacking" blocks of online content rather than organizing it on paper.
Moreover, in both print and online forms of presenting content, moving away from the grid system can itself lead to startling results. Just as Dada recoiled from the aesthetic norms of the early 20th century, Brutalist websites turned the grid system inside out to offer something more... unconventional.
As noted, in order to break the rules, you first need to learn them. For this and everything else, there is the Newspaper Designer's Handbook ( The New spaper Designer's Handbook by Tim Harrower is an excellent starting point. For a broader introduction, Carrie Cousins' Utilizing Grids in Print Design is great.
But what will all of the above mean when you move into the realm of web design? Well, you can answer: ever-increasing. CSS properties such as Grid, Shapes, and Flexbox make it incredibly easy to follow the rules of a grid system, as well as break them. Just as newspapers regularly transcend the invisible lines of their "wireframes," websites can push the boundaries of their environment.
In his book Art Direction for the Web, designer Andy Clarke delves primarily into the lessons of print media. mass media(and others), showing how advances in CSS can add entirely new dimensions to the grid system. As Clark himself states:
“For years we have been telling each other that the internet is not a print shop. We told ourselves that the solutions we admire in other design environments can't—and sometimes shouldn't—be used online. We don't have to think like that anymore."
Yes exactly.
The above principles were formed on the basis of many years - and in some cases centuries - of practical experience and many more things related to it. It all comes down to understanding how people can interact with content.
Newspapers at their best follow a cartoonishly simple principle: to present information in a way that is as clear, attractive, and accessible as possible. The same would be a worthy goal for any site or.
And you don't have to take our word for it.
These ideas were supported by Edmund C. Arnold, the aforementioned father of modern newspaper design. Over the years of his career, Arnold designed or redesigned hundreds of newspapers, including The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, The National Observer and Newsday.
He insisted that designers have more influence over newspapers, both in style and substance. Arnold was also a journalist and academic who wrote numerous books on newspaper design and typography. He knew what he was doing. It is no coincidence that the Society for News Design (SND), of which he co-founded in 1992, now gives out two annual awards, one for paper design and one for digital.
Newspaper designers - just like web designers - need to learn classic typography. And although web technologies are opening up new frontiers, it is useful to know what was accepted in the past. In the end, everything new is a well-forgotten old.
Studying the history of newspaper publishing won't provide you with all the keys to great web design, but understanding the principles that guided pre-digital designers cannot help but benefit those who design for the web. These two worlds have a lot in common. Any user is able to recognize good web design when they see it - partly because everyone has seen paper newspapers.
Web design guru Jeffrey Zeldman hit the nail on the head when he wrote this over a decade ago:
“Content comes before design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it is decoration.”
Smashing Magazine founder Vitaly Friedman bowed to the same altar when he said:
“Good design is effective communication, rather than styling at the expense of readability."
Both he and Zeldman would find many allies in the field of print design. Few, if any, media outlets have a richer history of the marriage of content and design than newspapers. This fight is all they have.
Towards the unknown
It's worth reiterating here that there are clear and undeniable differences between news design and web design. In newspapers, viewport sizes are always the same, while websites and landing pages must adapt to radically different screen sizes and device types.
In a newspaper business, you see what you get immediately, while websites can hide all sorts of useful features until they are "asked" to appear.
The purpose of this article is not to convince you that newspaper and web design are the same.
They are, however, often very similar. Just because you're proficient in one of them doesn't make you a master at the other design at the same time, but it helps.
Perhaps that is why, back in 2008, Friedman brought together a selection of award-winning newspaper designs. At the time, he lamented that print design methods were not applicable online. It was quite simple then, but now it has changed dramatically in better side, and this holds some really exciting prospects for web designers.
The process never ends. It cannot end. No newspaper or website worth reading is ever truly "finished" - it's always evolving. When looking at the first ever newspaper and the first website, it is fair to say that much has changed in both worlds since then:
Both of these formats have improved a lot since their modest debuts, and they still have a lot to achieve. As noted in 2016 Graphic Designer C Y Gopinath, the parameters are constantly changing: web technologies, screen sizes, devices, internet speeds - you can't count them all. In the mobile era, perhaps the logo plate will be located at the bottom of the conditional page. Who knows? It's all ahead.
In many ways, the baton has moved from newspaper design to web design. If today's web designers build their landing pages and websites based on the knowledge of print design traditions, they will achieve what previous generations of print designers could not even imagine.
We just have to follow how the latest trends are closely intertwined with traditional layout rules, and apply them in our projects.
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From this article you will learn
- How to create your own magazine
- Why you need to create your own journal
- What circulation to choose when creating a magazine
- Where to order a print of the magazine
For a long time, reading was one of the most common pastimes. However, with the advent of new technologies, live newspapers and magazines have largely faded into the background. Now the Internet has become the main source of current news, knowledge on various topics, entertainment and educational materials. But still print mass-media continue to exist. Some people turn to their publications when there is no access to the network, for example, while traveling by plane and train. Others simply prefer sometimes to take a break from the computer and flip through the paper pages. One way or another, the life of printed newspapers and magazines has not yet ended, and in this area you can develop your business. How to create a magazine that will be interesting to the audience and bring profit to the owner, you will learn in this article.
How to Create Your Own Journal from Scratch: 13 Steps (with Pictures)
Step 1. Decide which magazine to create.
To create your own magazine, you first need to decide on a topic. Any printed publication seeks to occupy its niche, find its audience. To do this, it must meet the interests of the selected group of readers and satisfy their needs for information. Another option is the yellow press format. There is no specific topic here, and the audience of such publications is quite wide. To create one issue of such a magazine, you need several sensational materials about the personal lives of stars with unique photographs.
A distinctive feature of the yellow press is, first of all, the absence of a criterion for the reliability of information. The question is whether the publisher plans to create a magazine about the stars and publish only real facts and photographs in it, or whether he wants to deal with "hot" materials and provocations.
- Decide whether you are planning a single magazine or a whole series. If this is a serial publication, all issues should have a common theme.
- The name of the journal should, one way or another, correspond to its semantic content, as well as suggest design ideas. As a rule, the name consists of one or two words (TIME, Guardian, Cosmopolitan, National Geographic).
- What is the main message of each publication? How can you connect it with the others?
- Each issue of the journal may have its own topic, corresponding to its focus. For example, a fashion week for a fashion magazine or organizing a wedding for a woman.
- It is important to clearly formulate the theme of each issue or series of issues.
- In well-known publications, there were such examples of issue names: "Swimwear" for Sports Illustrated, "Hollywood" for Vanity Fair, "September" for Vogue.
How to create a magazine so that it makes a profit? The publication has only two sources of income: proceeds from the sale of rooms and from advertising that is placed in them. Finding advertisers for a magazine starts with identifying their industry. Your audience should be interested in what you will advertise - then all parties will be successful. For example, fashion magazines rarely offer furniture or household appliances, but cosmetics, clothes and jewelry will do.
To create effective system interaction with advertisers, publishers hire special employees. A price list with prices for posting various messages is being developed. Of course, at first you will receive much less for publishing ads than well-known competitors. But if you manage to create a magazine that attracts attention, income will increase over time.
Step 3 Decide how you will write your journal.
To create Science Magazine, entertainment or any other publication, it is important to decide on the method of collecting and combining information. Here are some important aspects:
- The most familiar to people publications created with the help of computer programs. However, you can issue a journal without using them - this is one of the fashion trends print. Of course, this will require much more time and effort, and only a fairly experienced person can make this idea a reality.
- You can create a log in several programs. The most popular, although quite expensive, is InDesign. In addition to it, InCopy, Quark and some other technical means are used.
- The most economical way to create a journal is Office program Publisher.
Step 4. Find an office and the right employees.
To create a glossy magazine, you need a working room for a team of 5 to 10 people. Favorable office location is not the most important criterion, because at first you will mainly drive, and not to you. The equipment will help to arrange the workspace. For a media office, the standard set includes: desks and chairs, telephones, computers, a printer and a fax machine, and various stationery.
It doesn't matter if we are creating a magazine about literature or about fashion, the basis of any publication is professional workers. The chief editor manages everything that happens in the office. The selection of a person for this position should be treated with special attention. He must have extensive media experience and good references.
Chief Editor creates and corrects the entire structure of the journal. He decides which articles and how many to place in each issue, in what order to arrange them, which headings to enter or close, which advertisers to cooperate with, etc. He is also responsible for regularly ascertaining the level of demand for the publication, polling readers about its strengths and weaknesses, and changing strategy in accordance with the results. The editor-in-chief should be well aware of modern trends, be aware of new trends and ensure that the journal keeps up with the times.
Not less than important employees are the authors of the articles. Your friends or acquaintances can act as them, they can also be found on ads or among students of humanitarian universities. The author must be able to create unique text, possessing literacy and connectedness, objectively covering the facts, but at the same time conveying the author's individuality.
It is impossible to prepare a magazine without such an employee as a designer. It is on him that the appearance of the publication depends, and hence the first impression of it. The designer must:
- come up with a cover that can attract the attention of readers;
- design a branded design for a magazine;
- develop symbols, various design details, etc.
As practice shows, the ability to create a successful magazine half depends on how well the cover design is modeled.
Also, the office definitely needs a secretary, a proofreader, an advertising specialist and some other workers.
Step 5. Calculate the future circulation.
If you want to create a magazine with a circulation of less than 1000 copies, then by law you can not register it. If the circulation is higher, the publication must have a media registration certificate. To receive it, you need to send an application to Roskomnadzor containing information about the journal: title, type, circulation, distribution method, and much more. You also need a passport of the person who creates the publication, or a copy of the charter legal entity acting as a founder. In addition, the applicant pays the prescribed fee. The term for consideration of such an application is one month.
Step 6. Set deadlines.
It is important not only to know how to create a journal, but also when to release it. Time frames are especially important for those publications whose topics are related to news or current issues. You need to think through the stages of media preparation and understand whether your magazine will be ready at the appointed time.
Step 7. Let's start writing articles.
- Turn to topics that concern you and other editorial staff. Maybe it will actual problems your city or the whole country? Or will interviews with interesting personalities become the basis?
- You can create a magazine that includes a literary element in the form of short stories. It doesn’t matter if they are based on real events or not, the main thing is an interesting plot and relevance in this concept.
- Another genre is poetry. The authors can be both famous poets and the publisher himself and his friends.
- To create a magazine that is interesting to the audience, it is reasonable to involve as many people around you as possible in the discussion of topics.
Step 8. Making illustrations.
No matter how important the text component is, it is simply impossible to create a successful publication without illustrations. Now people are increasingly perceiving information visually, and this is of great importance.
- You can not do without thematic photos that complement the content. Also useful are photographs with neutral space to create an interesting backdrop for text.
- If your state has good photographer, he can lead an entire photojournalism project. It is necessary to choose a topic that is well revealed through visual images, and publish several pictures in each issue.
- You can also use other people's pictures with a Creative Commons license. You will not need to pay for them, however, the terms of use sometimes imply a prohibition on modification, mandatory signature etc.
- How to create a magazine if you don't have the required snapshots? They can be purchased at the so-called stocks. These sites contain a huge number of images, among which you are sure to find something suitable.
- You can also create a colorful edition with the help of author's illustrations, if you or your employees have the necessary skills.
Step 9. Preparing the cover of the magazine.
The cover should create intrigue, interest the reader so that he wants to open the publication and study the materials. There are several tricks for this.
- Pay special attention to the title of the journal. As a rule, from room to room it is performed in the same style. The title should be understandable, original and memorable and, of course, reflect the thematic direction of the publication.
- Traditionally, the title is placed at the top of the cover, in the most prominent place. However, you can create your own layout concept, as, for example, the publishers of Harper's Bazaar did.
- Consider what image will be on the cover of the new issue. It should also be attractive and relevant to the proposed theme. Very often, a photo of a famous person is placed on the cover, the material about which appears in the magazine. The format can vary from covert filming to a professional portrait.
- You can also put brief explanations about the content of the issue on the cover. You can highlight just the main theme, as TIME does, or go into more detail about a few pieces, like Cosmopolitan. It is important not to go overboard with the amount of text so that the cover you create is not overloaded.
Step 10 Selecting the final look for your magazine.
How to create a magazine that has an attractive and finished look? You need to pay attention to:
- Font. It should provide comfortable reading and not strain the eyes, as well as be combined with the overall style. It is important that all fonts used fit together.
- paper. First of all, you need to make a choice between a glossy and matte base.
- Colors. There are many options here. To save money, some magazines are printed in black and white or a combination of color and black and white printing. However, the most successful editions are produced exclusively in color. The choice depends on financial possibilities and on the direction of the magazine that you want to create.
Step 11. Deciding how to arrange the content.
When thinking about how to create a magazine, we must not forget about the composition. Different mutual arrangement of materials creates a different final product.
- A table of contents is often placed at the beginning of the publication. Before it, you can also place several pages with advertising information.
- The next element is the colophon. This is information about the journal: title, volume, number, place of publication, list of employees who worked on the issue, etc.
- It is also necessary to arrange the articles one after another correctly. Usually the most interesting is placed in the second part of the issue, so that readers can watch it to the end.
- You can also play with the design of the back cover. As a rule, it serves as a kind of decoration for the publication: something interesting or funny is placed there, making readers smile. So you can create a memorable
Step 12 Create the layout of the magazine.
Now you know what kind of magazine you want to create in terms of content and design. The layout software will help you arrange the content on the layout. When preparing a layout, there are a few rules to keep in mind:
- Formatting should be the same on all pages. Use a small number of matching fonts, keep borders and numbering in the same places. It is necessary to create a publication that has a holistic style.
- Don't forget about pagination.
- Make sure the final layout contains an even number of pages. This is important because an odd number will result in a blank sheet.
- If you want to create a magazine without using special programs, you need to decide on a method. Whether you print it or write it by hand, how to attach photos, etc.
Step 13. Publishing the magazine.
For beginner publishers, the best way to print media is to contact a print shop. The choice of a company should be taken responsibly, because the quality of your magazine depends on the quality of its work. However, there are a few tips about the characteristics of the publication that everyone should know:
- The most convenient for use is a medium-sized magazine. On the one hand, you can place a sufficient amount of text and illustrative materials in it. On the other hand, it will always be convenient to carry even in a small handbag.
- Do not make the pages too bright and "glassy". The reflection of light from them makes it difficult to read the magazine and perceive images.
- the building should not be too thick. A large number of It will be difficult for you to fill pages with interesting material, and readers will not have time to study them before the next issue.
- Correlate the appearance and principle of creating your media with its moral image. So, many readers are sure that the production of glossy magazines harms environment. Accordingly, such a journal on environmental topics will raise a lot of questions. Despite the ability to perform this task without harm to the environment, it is still better to prefer matte paper.
- Use promotional methods such as donating copies to libraries for free. This way more people will know about you.
- How to create a magazine that brings a stable income? A flexible subscription strategy will help. Thanks to her, you will have a permanent group of readers and will be able to communicate with them.
- Quark is considered one of the most difficult programs to use, but the wide range of features it provides makes you think about learning it.
- To bring your magazine to a wider audience, try self-publishing it.
- An introductory page can be placed before the editorial column. Use it to tell about your publication, to create the right impression about how and for whom it works. Try to connect with the audience, pay attention interesting facts etc.
- Several programs can be used to create a journal. For example, Text-Edit allows you to quickly and easily prepare and edit articles. You can arrange text and illustrations on the layout using InDesign.
- How to create a magazine that is interesting to a large audience? It can be very difficult to achieve this goal right away. It makes more sense to start with a small group of readers whose interests are easier to calculate. It will also save you from the cost of a large circulation, which may not pay off.
- To create a successful magazine, you need to establish good relationships with advertisers. To do this, they are provided with a layout of the publication and a price list for advertising. Determination of prices depends on many factors, including circulation, cost of a copy, etc.
- Advertising is a very important element in the activities of the magazine. It is not possible to create a profitable media without promotional materials. Deciding on your target audience, you need to start looking for companies that are interested in contacting her. The advertised product should be of interest to those people who will buy your magazine. It is also important to understand how many pages you can give away for advertising. The publisher must know what percentage of all materials it must be in order for the sale of the circulation to be profitable.
- Do not believe the belief that the print media is in the decline of its existence. Despite the development of technology, many magazines are still popular among the audience. It is only important to understand what topic will be of interest to readers, what niche you can occupy. To do this, before you create a magazine, you should thoroughly study the market for print publications. It is also important to correctly relate the topic to the format, for example, digital printing or paper is suitable for it.
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The payback period is 12 months.
The initial investment will be 2 840 000 rub.
The break-even point is reached at 4 month of work.
monthly net profit - 300 000 rub.
2. Description of the business, product or service
3. Description of the market
4. Sales and Marketing
5. Production plan
A critically important stage in the implementation of the project envisaged by this business plan is right choice ways of legal registration of newspaper publishing as a business.
Such registration has two components of its process.
The first point is related to the registration of the newspaper publishing house as commercial business stipulated by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. In this case, it is supposed to make a choice in favor of registering a publishing house in the LLC format. There are several reasons for this:
- Firstly, the status of LLC is the most suitable for a newspaper whose main target audience is the class of people belonging to the most active part of the population - these are entrepreneurs, creative and scientific intelligentsia, young professionals, as well as citizens with a certain material wealth.
- Secondly, having the legal form of "LLC", the newspaper publishing house has the opportunity to more effectively interact with various state and municipal structures interested in placing any materials on the pages of the newspaper, participate in various municipal or state programs to support regional media.
- Thirdly, with the help authorized capital“LLC”, its shares, can be attracted to finance the newspaper project by various investors, which is very difficult to implement, having only the status of an individual entrepreneur.
As for the registration procedure for "LLC", it has a standard form. Registration can be done independently - by submitting an application and relevant documents (charter, minutes of the constituent assembly, etc.) to the Federal Tax Service. This can also be done using the services of law firms specializing in business registration. The optimal registration period is approximately 30 days. The total amount of expenses required to complete the entire registration process is about 30–50 thousand rubles.
When submitting an application, you must also indicate the relevant OKVED codes which include:
- 58.1 "Publishing of books, periodicals and other publishing activities."
- 58.13.1 "Publishing newspapers in printed form".
In addition to the general registration scheme, a contract or an agreement with the printing house is required, which will be used to print the circulation of the newspaper.
The second part of the legal registration of the newspaper is to obtain the appropriate permission from government agencies, namely - from the service of Roskomnadzor (its full name is federal Service on Supervision of Compliance with Legislation in the Sphere of Mass Communications and Protection of Cultural Heritage).
Registration of such a permit (in fact, a license for publishing) is mandatory for all print media whose monthly circulation exceeds the established limit of 1,000 copies. This norm is established by Federal Law No. 2124-1 "On the Mass Media" of December 27, 1991 (current version of July 2, 2013).
It should be specially noted here that violation of this legislative norm is punishable by a fine of 1,000 to 30,000 rubles. according to the norms of Article 13.21 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.
To pass such registration in the regional divisions of Roskomnadzor, the following documents are required:
- receipt of payment of state duty, minimum size which is 500 rubles;
- copies of passports of the founders of the newspaper certified by a notary;
- a certified copy of the founding documents of the "LLC" - Charter, certificate of state registration, extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, tax certificate.
- for the same procedure of registration of the Internet site of the newspaper, you will need a certificate of registration of a domain name.
Based on Russian practice, the process of obtaining a license to create print media through Roskomnadzor may take at least 1-2 months.
In addition to mandatory forms registration of a newspaper edition will require the conclusion of lease agreements for the office space of the editorial office, contacts with distributors (for example, Federal State Unitary Enterprise Russian Post or local retail network newsstands).
6. Organizational structure
The full calculation of the payroll for 24 months, taking into account the bonus part and insurance premiums, is presented in the financial model.
In the world there is a huge number of different publications. They can be printed, or they can function exclusively in the virtual space. They are in very different demand, some boast millions of subscribers, while others have only a few readers. The topics of these publications also differ. One is about politics and economics, and the other is about things like hallway furniture and bathroom furniture. By the way, if you need furniture for the hallway or furniture for the bathroom, then you can find them quite inexpensively in www.divanov500.ru/catalogue/prihozhaya/ .
One way or another, but every creator of a magazine always dreams that his brainchild will gain maximum popularity. But here is what needs to be done for this, sometimes he does not know.
So, first of all, you need to decide on the subject of your publication. Sometimes too narrowly specialized magazines do not find a great response from readers, but publications general profile, in turn, are lost among huge number like themselves. Therefore, you need to think very carefully about this issue in order to make a really competent decision.
Then you need to take care of the regular filling of your journal with materials on the relevant topics. At first, you can handle this on your own, but over time, you will need the help of other people. In other words, you will have to take care of a staff of experienced and competent journalists. It is very important that they have at least an approximate idea of the industry in which they should work. For example, if your magazine is about things like hallway and bathroom furniture, then your employees should know as much as possible about cabinets, chairs, and sofas. By the way, if you need furniture for the hallway or furniture for the bathroom, then you can find them quite inexpensively at www.divanov500.ru/catalogue/furniture-dlya-vannoy/ .
The next thing to pay attention to is the design of the magazine. It's about about fonts, page layout, pictures, titles and more. Special attention should be on the cover. A good designer will help you properly design your publication. By the way, finding a decent designer is not at all difficult. In fact, you don’t even need to conduct a long interview with him. All you need to do is look at examples of his previous work.
If you are working on a release printed edition, then think over the circulation in advance, and also discuss with the printing house what paper to print your magazine on. Here it is necessary to correctly draw the line between expensive and high-quality paper, so as not to overpay for what you do not need, but also not to get a product of an unpresentable appearance as a result.
Thus, making your publication popular is not at all so difficult. All that is needed for this is just to make the necessary efforts.
In recent years, the paper press has been losing more and more positions to the Internet media: the circulation of magazines and newspapers is falling, and the high cost of "paper" makes it less and less attractive in the eyes of investors compared to online periodicals. In search of a way out, paper publications are beginning to master modern technologies - in order to at least fight off claims of archaism. At the end of April, the American newspaper The New York Times introduced its own application for glasses Google Glass - it will read articles aloud to the user. Other print media, in an attempt to retain the reader, resort to "augmented reality", "digital watermarking" and "video on paper" technologies.
Actually, very little is known about The New York Times application for Google Glass. The newspaper was the first media outlet to agree on cooperation with Google and their "computer of the future", and in general one of the first companies working in this direction. In addition to it, applications are being developed, in particular, for Gmail, Evernote notebook, Skitch, a drawing exchange service, and a client social network Path. It is also interesting that The New York Times was the first application for Google Glass, developed by a third-party manufacturer, and not by Google itself.
Google Glass users (the company has already sold about a thousand pairs of glasses to developers for testing) can install the newspaper app by giving it access to their Google account. The news application will set the agenda for the user, selecting the main events and notifying him of breaking news. Announcement of material from brief description will be displayed on the glasses screen - with a nod of the head, a Google Glass user can ask to read any article aloud to him.
Despite the fact that The New York Times is consistently among the three most read newspapers in the United States, the publication has long been betting on digital content - this is evidenced by the fact that the NYT site, with more than 30 million unique visitors per month, is the most popular news portal in America. Hence the understandable mutual interest of the publication in Google with its high-tech glasses.
However, not only the developers of various mobile devices, but also advertisers for whom "paper" is still a valuable advertising space. So, Microsoft company proved that if you wish, you can turn not only glasses, but also an ordinary magazine into an innovative device. The company built a Wi-Fi router into the May issue of Forbes - the palm-sized device was placed in a cardboard box inside the magazine. After activation, the router can distribute the Internet to five devices via the US network. mobile operator T Mobile. It charges through the Mini-USB port - charging lasts for three hours. The router for Forbes readers was developed as part of advertising campaign Microsoft Office 365 cloud service.
A similar technique was used in Entertainment Weekly: in 2012, the television network The CW placed its advertisement in the publication in the form of an LCD screen. In real time, a stream of Twitter messages about the company's new series was displayed on the screen and videos about telenovelas were shown. Journalists from Mashable opened the page with the screen and found out that the motherboard of an outdated smartphone connected to 3G and a battery are sewn into it. Employees of the technology portal even managed to enter the menu of this phone and make a call from it.
However, the new idea of The CW television network, in fact, can only be called the introduction of a stream of tweets into the magazine - the very technology of "video on paper" (Video-In-Print) has been used in the United States for several years now. And the trend was set by the same Entertainment Weekly magazine - in 2009, the CBS television company, together with the beverage manufacturer Pepsi, placed a special advertising tab in it. From the video screen built into the page, the characters of the television series "The Big Bang Theory" addressed the reader. The innovative Pepsi and CBS ads went on to win the Cannes Lions Grand Prix in the Print category.
Video-In-Print technology came to Russia in November 2010, when an advertising Martini Gold appeared in Vogue magazine. After some time, video ads appeared in magazine Playboy, however, in general, this expensive technology (however, the advertiser bears the cost) has not yet taken root in the Russian media.
While the primary use of Video-In-Print is still in advertising, advances in technology have allowed magazines to start using video as an adjunct to content as well. For example, the sports magazine Sports Illustrated in 2012 used the technology of “digital watermarking” (“digital watermarking”) to present its own video materials. The principle of its operation is similar to QR codes - with the difference that the "watermarks" on the magazine page are invisible, in contrast to the conspicuous black and white QR squares. By installing the required application, a Sports Illustrated reader could point their smartphone camera, for example, at the image of an American football player on a specially marked page and watch a video from a photo session. The same technique was used in the magazine to advertise the new Toyota - in the video, a young man talked about the advantages of the car.
The technology of "digital watermarking" was first used by the magazine's publishers in a special edition - Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. True, instead of an athlete, the reader could watch a video with models in swimsuits.
Another popular innovation for magazines with large advertising sections was another iteration of the "shop on the couch" - the ability to make purchases at the touch of a button. To do this, just download a special application and point your smartphone camera at the image of the desired product in the publication. In 2011, for example, such an issue was published by AHAlife, a homewares magazine.
In November 2012, the American men's magazine Esquire also presented its interactive version with online shopping. The app, developed by Netpage, also allowed the user to save articles and photos to their phone and share content they liked without going to the magazine's website. In fact, Esquire introduced one of the most convenient options for integrating print and online media, thus paving the way for the survival of the paper press.
Esquire Magazine, however, has always been distinguished by special attention to technical innovations. So, back in 2008, the publication presented a cover using electronic ink - the words “The 21st century begins now” appeared and disappeared on it. Inside, the same technology "moved" the cars on the advertising strips.
In 2009, Esquire presented an issue with another popular technology - “augmented reality” (“augmented reality”). Bringing the magazine to the computer camera, the reader could see Robert Downey Jr. "revived" - he was conducting a virtual tour of the innovative issue. Inside the magazine, Hollywood actors, including Jeremy Renner and Michael Stuhlbarg, changed clothes according to the weather in an original fashion section, and Community actress Jillian Jacobs told a joke in one of Esquire's most famous columns.
The technology of "augmented reality" was also used by other print media. The German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung used it in its magazine supplement in 2010. In “augmented reality”, the actress on the cover of the magazine began to move and smile, and inside the issue, the winner of Eurovision 2010 Lena Meyer-Landrut began to “talk” like comic book characters. In one of the materials devoted to how the Bavarians feel about Germany's bid for the 2018 Olympics, a local farmer looked at his field - when he got into "augmented reality" the same field became car parking.
In April 2013, Britain's The Independent became the first newspaper in the world to use "augmented reality", proving that this technology is not the prerogative of glossy magazines alone. Readers who installed the Blippar app on their smartphones got access to additional content, such as photo galleries, breaking news on the topics of the issue and the forum where they could comment on this or that material. As noted in the project description, Independent+ helps to “build bridges between news on paper and on the Internet.”
Despite the growing popularity modern technologies in the paper press, not all publications can afford such experiments because of their high cost. However, even those that can afford it, as a rule, produce such interactive projects in a limited edition. However, the desire of various newspapers and magazines to diversify their content, making it more attractive and convenient for the reader, certainly shows that the paper press is not yet ready to come to terms with forecasts of its imminent death and intends to fight for its rights.
