The Editor in Chief: A Management Guide for Magazine Editors by Benton Rain Patterson;Coleman E. P. Patterson

Author:Benton Rain Patterson;Coleman E. P. Patterson
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2007-09-22T21:19:00+00:00

Each issue of the magazine needs a variety of content. With some magazines, the variety, or editorial mix, is the same in nearly every issue. Every issue, let's say, would need: a cover story, which would be a serious, multi-source, reporting piece of 3,500 words or more; a profile; a light piece; a how-to piece; the magazine's usual standing features; some shorts; and either a photo feature or an article that is photointensive. Each issue would contain at least those pieces.

In that case, the editor may not want two big, serious pieces, one the cover story and one elsewhere. The editor probably doesn't want more than one how-to piece or more than one profile or more than one photo feature in the same issue.

A magazine's editorial mix might require not different kinds of pieces, but pieces on different subjects, perhaps the same assortment of subjects every issue. For an example, look at the pieces in Time. Typically there are in each issue pieces about significant events, people and developments in the United States, national stories; there are also pieces about significant events, people and developments outside the United States, international stories; and there are pieces about business, science, culture, entertainment and sports; plus the magazine's standing features, such as People.

The editorial mix is an important part of a magazine's personality and identity. It may be the big reason the subscriber subscribes and the newsstand buyer buys. When planning each issue, the magazine's editor, and the other staff members as well, must consider the editorial mix, making sure that all or most of the appropriate ingredients are included.

Scheduling the Book

Deciding which pieces will go into an issue and where in the issue they will go is called, on many magazines, scheduling the book, and it is the main thing that happens at issue planning meetings.

There is often among editors a tendency to put into the magazine the best pieces they've seen lately. The wise editor will recognize that tendency in herself and judiciously resist it. Repeatedly yielding to it is likely to result in an inventory grown stale, as older pieces again and again take a back seat to the newest material.

On the other hand, there is a valid argument for scheduling into the current issue the very best pieces in the inventory. The argument is founded on the same let's-put-our-best-athletes-on-the-field principle that coaches use to assure their best chance of winning. Editors need to realize, though, that if they run their ten or twelve best pieces in the current issue, by the next issue they'll have to come up with another ten or twelve best pieces or face an inventory of second-bests and worse. The feast-or-famine result will likely be a sensational issue followed by a weak-tea issue.

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