Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
MAGAZINES
ABOUT MAGAZINE:
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles, generally
financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three. Magazines can be distributed through the mail; through
sales by newsstands, bookstores or other vendors; or through free distribution at selected pick up locations.
Publication:
The various elements that contribute to the production of magazines vary wildly. Core elements such as publishing schedules, formats and target audiences are seemingly infinitely variable. Typically, magazines which focus primarily on current events, such as Newsweek or Entertainment Weekly, are published weekly or biweekly.
Magazines with a focus on specific interests, such as Cat Fancy, may be published less frequently, such as monthly, bimonthly or quarterly. A magazine will usually have a date on the cover which often is later than the date it is actually published. Current magazines are generally available at bookstores and newsstands, while subscribers can receive them in the mail. Sometimes the subscriber gets a better edition of the one being sold in newsstands, because they have either posters or something extra to add. Many magazines also offer a back issue service for previously published editions.
Most magazines produced on a commercial scale are printed using a web offset process. The magazine is printed in sections, with 16 pages or more, which may be black-and-white, be in full colour, or use spot color. These sections are then bound, either by stapling them within a soft cover in a process sometimes referred to as saddle-stitching, or by gluing them together to form a spine, a process often called perfect-binding. Some magazines are also published on the internet. Many magazines are available both on the internet and in hard copy, usually in different versions, though some are only available in hard copy or only via the internet: the latter are known as online magazines.
Most magazines are available in the whole of the country in which they are published, although some are distributed only in specific regions or cities. Others are available internationally, often in different editions for each country or area of the world, varying to some degree in editorial and advertising content but not entirely dissimilar.