Chapter 4 Writing for Magazines

CHAPTER 4 WRITING FOR MAGAZINES The “Navy story” can take many forms. All must be considered, and each, depending on the nature of the material to be presented, should be used. Service-oriented CONSUMER MAGAZINES One of these forms is the magazine. Too often overlooked by Navy journalists, this medium offers a ready market for virtually any subject one might consider. Since magazines cater to the tastes, temperaments and interests of specific groups, they offer an excellent medium for you to reach exactly the audiences you desire. These groups, with their special identified interests, provide a possible readership for many stories that have little or no appeal to the general public. An editor for the Washington Post would have extreme difficulty finding any news value in a story about a San Diego-based sailor from Cleveland who collects coins. The editor of the Numismatic News, on the other hand, would welcome such an article and is even prepared to pay for it. The point is that the “Navy story” has many facets. Some are of interest to virtually everyone, some to relatively few. Whatever the case, all the stories should be told using the medium most appropriate for a particular story. Just for some magazine. remember — almost every story idea, even one conceived with another medium in mind, is also right This chapter acquaints you with the various types of magazines and magazine articles. It also introduces you to the composition and styles of magazine articles. Finally, it offers you some tips on researching magazines, researching story ideas and getting your articles published. General Interest Publications MAJOR CLASSES OF MAGAZINES LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Recognize the major classes of magazines. In general, the four major classes of magazines are as follows: Consumer Trade, technical, professional and business Company (house organs) Consumer magazines, the largest of the four classes, include all those publications found on the newsstand (fig. 4-l). Their contents attempt to appeal to the general public or to large groups in our society that share common interests. With few exceptions, consumer magazines carry advertising and are sold individually or by subscription. A few magazines that qualify as “consumers” are sold only by subscription. Consumer magazines are made up of general interest publications and special interest publications. This distinction is made not so much for the readers as for the potential writers of magazine articles. Magazines are purchased by people who expect certain things from a particular publication. For a magazine to be successful, those expectations must be met. Therefore, a writer must adapt to the style prescribed by a magazine’s editorial policy and submit only stories dealing with its expressed area of concern Any disregard of this policy will result in a story’s automatic rejection, regardless of how interesting or well written it maybe. General interest publications, as the category implies, are intended for the general public. Their subject matter is broad, and their appeal usually transcends most of the boundaries of age, sex, race, education, occupation and geography. Magazines such as Reader’s Digest, Life, Parade and The Saturday Evening Post, fall neatly into this category. Each contains a variety of articles to interest a diverse audience. Others, such as Time and Newsweek, also qualify as general interest publications. Although they concentrate primarily on news and current events, they still cover a wide range of subjects, offering something for everyone. Also, their material is presented in an easily read style that explains a news story in a way any reader can understand. Some magazines originally published for specific groups now attract a wider audience because of 4-1