How to Make a Magazine: The Ultimate Guide

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Starting a magazine can be a great way to build your brand. You get your customers thinking about your company and products when they see the name on the cover, and you can build a reputation with them for being knowledgeable about what's happening in your industry. Creating a successful magazine is a large undertaking, but with good content and a polished design, you'll find your audience growing in no time.

What makes a magazine successful?

A magazine must be well-designed. At worst, if your content looks disorganized or sounds unprofessional, it distracts the reader from the information you're attempting to share. If your material is forgettable or runs together, you won't retain your readers. A cohesive design serves as the backdrop to your information, perhaps furthering it by building the mood with color or shape.

Most importantly, your magazine needs to share relevant content. People rarely want to engage with what is literally old news. If you can't keep up with your industry, you won't be able to build an audience. If there are journals in your field, share some of the newest tools and techniques with your readers. Reach out to prominent figures in the community to share their thoughts on the state of the industry. When regular events like conferences are approaching on the calendar, get your audience excited for the next issue by including a recap.

The funding for your magazine will be from a mix of advertising and subscriber payments. Start building relationships with businesses in your community that are related to your content. Consider seasonal promotions to increase the number of subscribers you have, or even tiers with article limits to accommodate your readers' finances.

Creating your magazine

Once you've chosen your content, the next step is to get people to pick up your magazine. Your cover is the first thing your reader sees. If the tone of your magazine is dry, you may have a text-heavy cover. If it's primarily for entertainment, perhaps you find an image for every issue and design around that. Once your reader opens your magazine, they'll want to see that the interior is polished too. Here are a few questions to ask yourself while starting your design:

• How many columns of text will I have? Some publications have a single column of text, spanning the width of the page, while others have three or more.
• How many images will I use per story? You don't have to hold yourself to this number every time, but like white space, images give your reader's eyes a break and have the added benefit of keeping them engaged if you use images as teasers for following content.
• What color palettes will I use? Brighter colors are naturally more attractive, but they may not match the tone of your content or pair well with images on your page. Pastels or neutral colors may be the better choice for your entire magazine or individual articles.
• What font (or fonts) do I want to use? Choosing a font to match your tone can be difficult. You may find that you have to balance legibility with formality in your text. You will likely want to find multiple font families and assign one to each type of text, like your titles, sidebars, and main copy.

Catching your customer's eye

If you're considering a magazine for your brand, you don't have to do it alone. The multitude of functionalities in the CorelDRAW graphic design suite can help you grow your audience and keep them hooked. Good design conveys competence and keeps readers engaged with your business, and quality content positions you as a trusted source of information to keep up with. Try the photo editing features and layout tools in CorelDRAW Standard today for a jumpstart on your magazine arrangement.