How to create a compelling company magazine

Despite the prognostications of decades past, print magazines are alive and well — and making a comeback. Several well-known consumer magazine brands have returned to print this year, offering readers the chance to unplug, immerse themselves in rich, in-depth storytelling, and enjoy the tactile luxury of a screen-free experience.

Many of us at SE10 have journalism backgrounds, and on top of that, experience working at print magazines. Among our team, you will find reporters who have worked at Bloomberg Businessweek, Fast Company, Time Magazine, KHL Group publications, and others.

Creating a magazine in a public relations setting is different than working for a news or a lifestyle publication. But some lessons still do apply — conduct a great interview, write good stories, be accurate, and incorporate great design. The SE10 team is experienced at putting these principles into practice. For example, we recently won an international Stevie Award and a gold MarCom award for our work producing AriensCo’s print magazine, Out Working.

Here are some of my tips for creating a compelling magazine:

1. Business goals are the foundation: Before any interview is conducted or piece of copy is written, it’s fundamental to identify what the goals of the business are and create a strategy that serves them. Some examples could be: “reinforcing our innovative position,” “connecting with a culture,” “educating our audience,” “combining several brands into one vehicle,” “nurturing relationships with our dealers and customers,” and “creating brand awareness.” All of these demand different content strategies.
2. Keep it simple at first: Create a structure for the magazine that can be repeated for the first few years. Come up with a set of departments, features, story forms, sample table of contents, etc., that all speak to your business goals. Now you are operating on assignments, and you have specific holes to fill, not scrapping for content, and designing every page from scratch, each issue.
3. Throw all irons in the fire: Don’t work from issue to issue. You’ll get caught missing key pieces of content. Fill a pipeline with stories you can deploy when you need to. If one of your sections is a “customer profile,” don’t wait. Do three or four profiles as they arise and have them ready to go for the future. If they don’t make print, you can always use them on social media or a website.
4. Get a great designer and define the design language from the outset: Create a clipbook of great magazine layouts from magazines you admire. Integrate various ideas until you have something of your own. Define that language and stick to it. Having a great designer will not only make the magazine look great, but it will also make your life easier. As I see it, there are “active” and “passive” designers. You want an active designer who collaborates, comes up with solutions, spots text that needs work, understands the goals of the magazine, and more. A passive designer that only takes direction like a food order at a restaurant and bounces it back to you as quickly as possible will create headaches. You’ll spend more time directing design than creating compelling content.
5. Stop and smell the roses: Sure, you’re on deadline. But enjoy each and every interview and writing each and every story. The world is full of fascinating people and interesting work. Now’s your chance to learn something. A truly curious mind that wants to learn and connect with other humans will conduct better interviews, pull out more interesting information, and ultimately, be a better writer. Great writing demands empathy — a good story is not simply a deadline to be met. It’s a chance to bring something into the world that doesn’t already exist. It’s an opportunity to enrich the intellectual lives of your readers and yourself. “Get into it.”

Need help producing an award-winning custom print magazine? Get in touch.