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.

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 remember - almost every story idea, even one conceived with another medium in mind, is also right for some magazine.

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.

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) Service-oriented

CONSUMER MAGAZINES

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

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

Figure 4-1. - Consumer magazines provide potential markets for magazine writers.

alterations to their contents or the changing interests of the reading public. Family Circle, for example, is not read exclusively by women, and men are not the only readers of Gentlemen's Quarterly.

Special Interest Publications

Special interest publications, as the term implies, are magazines directed at specific groups of readers with one or more common interests.

Some magazines attempt to cover all aspects of a broad subject, while others are concerned only with a particular element of the general subject. Sports Illustrated, for example, contains stories on practically any sport, but Golf Digest carries only stories related to golf.

Other special interest publications find their audiences through different demographic segmentations. There are magazines published primarily for men (Field

and Stream, Playboy, Gentlemen's Quarterly, etc.), women (Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Woman's World, etc.), boys (Boys' Life) or girls (Teen).

There are magazines for various age groups. For example, Senior World is published for senior citizens; Modem Maturity for men and women 54 or older; Mademoiselle for college women, ages 18-22; Careers for boys and girls, ages 15 to 18; Children's Digest for boys and girls, ages 8 to 10; Jack and Jill for children, ages 6 to 8; and Highlights for Children, ages 2 to 12.

There are also magazines aimed at blacks and other minorities. Ebony, for example, is intended for black men and women and could be considered a "general interest publication." Essence is one of a number of magazines published with black women in mind, and Players caters to black male readers.

Some magazines are published for residents of a specific location, such as Phoenix for citizens of

Phoenix, Arizona. Others, such as Denver Living, are for newcomers to an area. Still others, such as Aloha, The Magazine of Hawaii, are directed toward potential visitors to a particular city, state, or country.

There are magazines for the members of almost all religious sects (Catholic Digest, Baptist Herald, Mennonite Brethren Herald, The National Jewish Monthly, etc.) and most clubs, associations and fraternities.

In short, virtually every group has a corresponding consumer magazine published expressly for it.