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How to Make A Good Magazine?
Print magazines are here to stay only if they are of good quality and are a reliable source of information. Inspiring and engaging its readers out of the noise of the web is one of the top qualities of a good magazine. Among many, Frab's is the MLS reliable source of information and collection of good quality magazines.
Though the internet is better for communicating fast news, it cannot compete with a magazine that is a tangible possession representing the art of words, vision, and culture. Do you know the most important aspect of a magazine? You guessed it right! Yes, it’s the readers.
Knowing its readers inside and out is crucial for a magazine as to make a magazine is to create a community. And a good independent magazine interacts with its community of readers to develop an understanding of their interests and hence build a bond with it. And in this way, a magazine becomes a medium to spread the voice.
Now, let's take a look at some other important features that make a magazine a good one.
Though the internet is better for communicating fast news, it cannot compete with a magazine that is a tangible possession representing the art of words, vision, and culture. Do you know the most important aspect of a magazine? You guessed it right! Yes, it’s the readers.
Knowing its readers inside and out is crucial for a magazine as to make a magazine is to create a community. And a good independent magazine interacts with its community of readers to develop an understanding of their interests and hence build a bond with it. And in this way, a magazine becomes a medium to spread the voice.
Now, let's take a look at some other important features that make a magazine a good one.
Special Ingredients For Making a Good Magazine
Many things contribute to the making of a good magazine. Starting from attractive covers to graphics and whatnot. Here we have prepared a list of features that adds quality to a magazine. Let’s take a look.
Attractive Cover
For starters, we get instantly drawn toward anything that looks attractive. So, an attractive and impactful cover design is essential for a magazine. After all, a cover is the first thing that anyone sees at first look. Also, it is important to have a proper style as a magazine is filled with titles and content.
In the wide world of magazines, you should find a creator that helps you building a very catchy cover in line with magazine mission. Among the crowd, a good cover at the beginning will help you to stand out, and your magazine style will help you be recognized for it in future issues.
The Appealing Style And Design
Besides being a voice spreader, a magazine is an art opera too. Design in an independent magazine has the same importance as impactful content. The layout, colors, and fonts should impress a reader. Through the design, your community comprehends the mood of the magazine and the emotions that a paper magazine possess.
You can take help from a professional graphic designer to create an influential magazine. As graphics not only enhance the beauty of the magazine but also communicate emotions behind words in the best way. Good design is a message in itself.
Pages, Dimensions, And Binding
Do you remember old glossy magazines? Well, today, it is a total no to them. You are creating an object to stay in the future. Not something that should end up in a bin after five minutes of reading. That is why carefully selecting a good quality paper is important. Paper with characteristics (soft, raw, thick or not, apt dimension, etc.) that fit the content of the magazine and its design.
The scope of adding creativity in magazines is not limited to its design and content, you can go creative with the dimensions of the magazines too. Dimensions matter as they enhance the reading experience. Think of the size a magazine should have to attract the attention of your readers.
There are many binding techniques that people follow to add value to their magazines. Be it saddle stitch or perfect binding or any other technique. Not only it’ll make handling convenient, but also it can be counted as a design element.
Content and Inspiration
Let’s take the example of the internet, search for the same thing you last searched on the search engine. Did you get a different result this time? No, right!
The Internet has a lot of content but due to its algorithm, it will keep proposing you the same content, it's commercial logic. Whereas, a magazine is exactly the opposite. It helps people find something they did not know before. It lets people discover new content, content that is out of their circle for them to get interested and get inspired.
You can have a variety of topics to talk about or just one single topic (we prefer this one as more specialized magazines are easier to find a public), but please "be deep"! Searching for content takes a lot of time. So, content should have depth, be specific, and helps people get a complete understanding.
Fresh Editorial Experiences
A Magazine should help people find new rebellious, innovative ideas. A magazine breaks the rules. The secret for a good magazine is that it keeps on delivering the community of readers a new inspiration and a different perspective compared to the ones on the web. Editorial experience should be fresh, not plagiarized and unlike online content, you dont have to follow SEO rules.
The Right Cost Of A Magazine
Great design, good quality paper, eloquent authors, beautiful binding, etc. do have a cost. A high cost. Now the question arises is it sustainable for the market? Of course yes. A magazine is a precious source of innovative ideas that could be followed in the future. Or that in the future can be read as historical evidence of lives.
Do not exceed, of course, but do not be scared to make your magazine medium-high priced. When you decide the price include all the costs, from the cost of paper to the cost of all the contributors.
Tip: If you work on cost distribution remember that you should be able to leave at least a 50% price to all the sales chain (distributors and shops) to cover their expenses.
What do you prefer? a high price superior quality product that people would spend a high price to have, or a low price product that people do not care about! It's quite easy to decide, right?
Higher cost, lower frequency, better quality. This is the better formula to make a magazine work.
Do not exceed, of course, but do not be scared to make your magazine medium-high priced. When you decide the price include all the costs, from the cost of paper to the cost of all the contributors.
Tip: If you work on cost distribution remember that you should be able to leave at least a 50% price to all the sales chain (distributors and shops) to cover their expenses.
What do you prefer? a high price superior quality product that people would spend a high price to have, or a low price product that people do not care about! It's quite easy to decide, right?
Higher cost, lower frequency, better quality. This is the better formula to make a magazine work.
Frab’s is the best source worldwide for the new way of making magazines
Among other magazine dealers, Frab's is the best reference in Europe for independent magazines for its high quality of the important selections (you can trust them, you will, as here you’ll find the good ones only) and the passion they have for indie mags.
Frab's borns from the passion for print paper from its founder Anna Frabotta, a marketing expert and a journalist based in Italy. She created Frab's to solve her self problem- avoid high printing costs for the best magazine coming from all around the world. Now Frab's counts on a very efficient e-commerce service with fast worldwide shipping. With two shops in Rome and Forlì, and many Pop Up Mags (Frab's Pop Up store format), Frab’s also has a presence all around Europe.
Frab's is also a cultural place:
- Where presentations and workshops are organized on the world of magazines
- That spreads the culture of independent magazines through their channels like mail, social media, etc.
- That has lecturers and teachers working in the main Italian Universities
- where Mag to Mag Festival is organized, the only European Festival exclusively dedicated to independent magazines
- That has a subscription plan Secret Mag Club
- Where a course on "how to make a magazine" is being offered.
- Where help is provided on a one-to-one basis, also, specific consultancy services for the business and bureaucracy are being offered.
- That provides full business consultancy services to existing or wannabe publishers who want to approach and efficiently run an independent magazine.