Flex Student Newspaper #30

Flex #30 June 2012 is the final issue of the academic year and I am very pleased with it. Being the last issue of the year meant is was produced while people were trying to meet last minute coursework deadlines. I felt some departments looked quite strong and I will go into the summer holidays with a few ways we can improve our design. I will need to take some time to evaluate the year, production process and my team before making changes. Below are the pages I did the design & layout for in this final issue.

Flex #30 June 2012 Cover

Flex #30 June 2012 Editorial/ Contributors

Flex #30 June 2012 News Page 4-5. We have started to run the very short articles along the bottom. The black, blue and yellow bars serve as links to online and social media.

Flex #30 June 2012 News Page 4-5. We have started to get more vertical with some of the layouts as well as work things across the page and use the space more creatively.

Flex #30 June 2012 News Page 12-13. The centre page spread was one of the cover stories so we did something a little more special working closely with Sheri Matthews the Features editor. We decided to run the two articles along with a timeline of the queen at the bottom running the length of both pages to serve as a visual hook.

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"Where Do Magazines Come From" - with Nicolas Brett, Managing Director (MD) of BBC Magazines Worldwide

On Monday 14th May 2012 I attended a seminar entitled "Where Do Magazines Come From" by Nicolas Brett, Managing Director (MD) of BBC Magazines Worldwide.

I took some notes during his presentation. Below are some of the key points and questions I took away.

Can you take a company property and turn it into a magazine?
What is a magazine?
1) the dont disappear
2) companion & friend
3) people feel they own them
4) advisor
5) personal and community

Key Points to take away:
build (what the readers want) and they will come.
build a community around peoples common passions and interest.
set and lead trends. do not follow.

Keep the audience at the heart of everything you do.
Build a brand with international appeal.
Embody that across several channels; print, web, motion, newsletter, social media, podcasts, events, etc.
Define the role each channel will play in embodying the brand playing of each ones strengths


Market Segmentation: Present reader with (illusion of) choice?
same topic/ different viewpoint.

The Problem with children's magazines: (do other publications face same/ similar issues?)
forced to find new audience every few years.
feast and famine because of age group

____

At the end of the seminar I approached him to speak about internships of work experience at BBC Magazines and Nicolas was nice enough to give me the contact details of

Having wokred on the student newspaper I can now see more of the strengths of print, digital and online so I plan to learn the following.:
Learn HTML, CSS & javascript
Learn to develop for the iPad, iPhone and Android devices


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Flex Student Newspaper #27

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Safety Focus Magazine Re-design/

I saw an advertisement in a student newsletter about working on magazine for Africa. Although this was a little vague I had plans in the future of etting up my own magazine so getting some experience would be useful. Although I had already begin working on Flex the student newspaper it would just be case of careful time managent to get it done. However this was only my first term and I was involved in too many things to give the magazine the attention it required.

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