Guidelines for Three-Part Group Publishing Project
Your group project consists of three parts:
PART I: A fully developed publishing, editorial, advertising, and circulation plan. Essentially, this written publishing proposal significantly expands and develops the publication proposal you started with, demonstrating your understanding of publishing concepts you have learned since the beginning of the semester. This expanded proposal is not limited in page length and can include appendices, but must include research covering the following:
A. Concept/Editorial Need/Formula for Fulfilling the Need
-- State the concept of your publication as specifically and succinctly as possible. Remember that you must have a subject before you have an audience. Your publication needs a title, of course, and a descriptive subtitle.
-- Demonstrate that your publication is workable, practical and marketable by citing sources that demonstrate the size of your primary and secondary markets.
-- Demonstrate that there is an editorial need for your publication, i.e., explain your audience(s) unmet editorial needs, their depth of interest, and how your publication will serve those needs through your editorial formula.
--Include your chart stating your editorial purpose and list of unmet editorial needs, formula, and content for a specific issue. Make sure these are consistent with your final project.
B. Competition/Editorial Niche
-- Show that you know the competition. Know the competition’s strengths and weaknesses. Demonstrate that your publication is positioned effectively in relation to the competition. That is, show that you are meeting unmet editorial needs of your audience. It is essential that you know the competition, its strengths and weaknesses, in order to do this effectively.
C. Reader Profile (Portrait of your reader as a human being)
-- Provide a demographic and psychographic profile of your reader.
-- People change, will your audience? Anticipate changing audience interest and show how your publication might meet those future needs.
-- How have you planned to get your reader to spend the maximum amount of time with the publication? Save value? Audience participation? How many times will your audience return to the publication? How many people will the publication be passed on to?
D. Include a list of editorial content of three complete issues, including the titles and descriptions of features and the specific content of standing departments. The editorial should show off your publication's breadth, depth, and purpose to its best advantage. We consider whether your editorial plan:
-- Has variety and is well balanced, including a good mixture of departments and features, long pieces and short, highly illustrated pieces and textual pieces.
-- Has a core of material that will interest all readers, and low readership items to attract new readers. Appeals emotionally, intellectually, psychologically. Shows evidence of good reporting.
-- Is consistent in its scope of subjects, and represents a well defined point of view.
-- Every bit of editorial has a function, providing service information, entertainment, enlightenment, etc. Offers the reader something unexpected to keep them coming back, and enhances the reader's life.
E. Advertising Strategy:
-- Who will advertise and why will they advertise in your publication rather than with the competition? What unique qualities possessed by your readers can you offer potential advertisers? Remember, a strategy is not a list of advertisers; it is a plan to get them to advertise.
F. Circulation Strategy:
-- How often will you publish and in what format? Consider how and where you will be reaching your reader. How much circulation will be paid, unpaid, or controlled. If paid, how much single-copy sales? How much subscription?
-- How will you get to your potential readers? Lists? Agencies? How will you get them to subscribe, and more important, how will you get them to RENEW? What is your subscription price? How will you continually acquire new readers? How long can you expect to keep your reader once they have subscribed?
PART II: The cover or splash page of your publication and contents page finished to the comprehensive stage, plus comprehensives of the opening two-page spread of each of your individual features (adjusted for newsletters and electronic publications).
The comprehensives are not reproducible by printing methods. Rather, they are intended to show how image and type will be combined in the finished editorial project to convey your publication’s content and reach its audience. You may use any available method to produce the comprehensives, but they should resemble as close as possible the finished printed or electronic product. Wholesale plagiarism of other publication’s designs will result in an "F," but you may borrow graphic elements from already published sources for this classroom exercise.
What we are looking for is imaginative and appropriate use of type, image, and white space focused to the needs and tastes of your readers. Below are categories we consider when we grade the comprehensives:
Cover: Does it convey publication's concept and project personality? Is the logotype instantly recognizable? Is the presentation clean and thorough?
Contents: Does it deepen reader interest and move the reader into the magazine? Does there appear to be strategic planning about placement of editorial so there is more than one "entry" into the publication? Does it integrate image, type and white space effectively? Is it functional?
Format and Feature spreads: Is the publication coherent, consistent in its formatted design elements, and "reader friendly?" Is there effective use of illustration/photos? Is typography appropriate throughout? Is there evidence of originality? Is presentation clean? Does the publication's design demonstrate an understanding of layout concepts?
Thumbnails: Include the thumbnail dummies of your complete publication.
PART III: The Oral Presentation. You will be limited to 10 minutes in your presentation, and we like everyone to participate. There will be 5 minutes for questions. It is practical to assign parts of the proposal to individuals, but it is essential that you practice together. Use the Evaluation and Repositioning form (online) as your guide to what to include.
The point of this assignment is to give you experience in presenting a sophisticated editorial project idea to clients or employers. You will need to be selective, building on your strong points while acknowledging the challenges your publication faces. Use the outline provided above for topics, but avoid discussing format or design at any length-let your comprehensives speak for that.
11-07