How to remake a magazine: a systematic approach to redesign will ensure happy readers and advertisers - Folio: Special Sourcebook Issue 1998

To thrive, a magazine needs to evolve. Most editors and art directors remodel their magazines -- in fits and starts -- every day. They're always looking for ways to focus text and graphics better, for good ideas that will add to or refine the standard menu of what they cover in every issue. But into every editor's life, if he or she is lucky, comes a magazine that requires more than fine-tuning. What I'm talking about here is hardcore rehab: a magazine that needs more than a makeover; it needs a heart transplant. That means new readers, a new direction, a new design, a new editorial focus. It's a tall order and if you screw it up, you'll be very sorry: Your readers will be outraged, and it won't be long before you realize you were nothing more than a one-person wrecking crew.

Luckily, a lifetime of regret and remorse isn't very likely if you look carefully at why you're revamping, what you hope to achieve, and how you'll go about it. A systematic approach to your magazine's redesign can help assure you that your plans will bear fruit in the form of happier longtime readers, new readers who think you're hot stuff, advertisers who know that your understanding of their market is second to none, and greater glory and profits all around.

But before you get to that good part, you need to examine your motives for wanting to relaunch. Here are some good ones:

* You know that the world has changed, and you know your magazine hasn't.

* Readers are dissatisfied, and you've got the shrinking newsstand and renewal figures to prove it.

* Advertisers say they've ceased getting the response they want from your readers.

* Your demographics are shifting and you're moving out of your old niche into one that's overcrowded and, possibly, unprofitable.

* You have competition that's ripping you off so fast, you're the one who looks like the follower.

* You are dissatisfied with the way your magazine looks, feels, reads and sounds.

* There are also some bad reasons for wanting to relaunch. To wit:

* You've just taken over a magazine and you want to look like a genius (and to make your predecessor look like an idiot).

* You're enamored of the look of new magazines in your field and you'd like to "borrow" their design for your book.

* You want to create a buzz and make glamorous new friends who will invite you to prestigious openings and exciting dinner parties.

* Your marketing people say that they'd get a lot more ads if you'd just take out the editorial they can't sell against and create a more advertiser-enticing look.

* You want to do something other than magazine editing, and you think creating a sensation with your redesign might get you your own cable TV show.

In other words, the only reason to relaunch a magazine is to make it stronger, more secure and better able to please both readers and advertisers. Your ego should be Superglued onto how good it feels to create a magazine that readers love and worship. That should be reward enough. Always looking past the reader toward your next (more high-profile, more remunerative) career move is a good way to become very unpopular with the readers you've got, while making it extremely unlikely that you'll catch the eye of the employer you crave.

So I'm worthy. What's next?

Your readers are experts

Go to the true experts on the nature of your magazine's distress: your readers. Find out what, precisely, is bugging them. What do their letters reveal? What do they say in focus groups? If you can't afford outside research, create in-book surveys that readers can fill out and return. Read the surveys and tabulate them -- by hand, if necessary. Find out what pleases readers and what drives them crazy. Find out what else they read.

If you want to re-bond your soon-to-be newer-and-better magazine to readers you've already got, take a look at them as they really are. What are they like (ambitious? funny? plainspoken? sporty?) What do they look like? What are their ambitions and dreams? What do they do when no one's looking?

Here the message is simple: Find out what your readers are like at heart and accept them for who they are and what they want out of life. No one ever succeeded with a magazine that sneered at its readers or implied that their dreams were foolish or their lives not quite up to snuff. Magazines are an intimate, secret pleasure. Sure, there are some magazines that people buy primarily to be seen with, to carry because they say something about their buyer (that she's fashionable or hip -- whatever). Better, though, is a magazine that a reader buys just because he or she knows that the editors understand who the readers are, and aren't reserving judgment on her character and look until she loses 10 pounds or gets a new car or is made Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. You wouldn't want a friend like that, and you certainly wouldn't spend good money to be condescended to by a magazine that purports to help you.

So -- know that you must love your readers. If you do that, you'll never patronize them, and you'll feel happy and privileged to give them what they want in your magazine. And, when you know that they need something that's just plain good for them, you'll figure out how to get the information to them in a form that they'll accept and even thank you for.

Now it's time to compare your magazine to its competition. Are they covering areas you haven't touched? If so, find out what they are. Are their contents more exhaustive than yours? On the other hand, is your editorial better focused and more clear-cut for your readers? Do your competitors have more readable text, better photographs? If so, define why you like their offerings -- or yours -- better. Write down everything.

Next, come up with a one-sentence definition of what your magazine is all about. It can be as simple as "Frog Fancier sharpens the skiffs of frog farmers supplying the French restaurant market." Then do the same for each magazine in your field. If your main competition is, say, "a wish book for men and women who've always dreamed of frog farming in the Dordogne," you'll know that you've got distinctly different focuses. In this case, you can assume that your magazine may share some readers with its competition, but both of you will certainly attract different readers as well. You'll know you've got problems if your definitions are too close: You and your competition are probably falling all over each other if your magazines can both be summed up as offering "practical advice for the novice frog farmer."

If that turns out to be the case, brainstorm about what your magazine might do differently. Write down, in no particular order, everything you think your reader might like to read. First-person stories? Expert advice? New product information? Fiction? News roundups?

Think about your tone. If your magazine were a person, what kind of a person would it be? Is this personality what you and your readers want most? If not, what do you think is missing? Consider what other magazines in your field offer and whether you like their tone and voice, and whether you think it's appropriate for their audiences or not. Write down all your comments and ideas.

Armed with what you've done so far, come up with at least 25 ideas for each category of information you hope to cover. Write down every one that comes to mind; this is not the moment for self-editing or refinement.

As you write, you'll learn a couple of things. First, you'll find out whether you are interested enough in your new focus to bring it to life. Second, and just as crucial, you'll gradually get comfortable with the ideas, voice and spirit you think you want to bring to the magazine. It's not easy to begin to speak a new language.

Once you have your ideas for departments and features down on paper, you have to decide their proportions and the order in which they'll appear. Look at what you've got in your magazine now. What are the strictures that advertising puts on the number of spreads and right-hand openings you can reasonably expect to have? A magazine that can bank ads or that has a 35:65 ad:edit ratio has more room to romp than a magazine that has franchised adjacencies on every other page of the book.

If you think you can change these ratios and selling practices, consider whether you want to. Do you want an uninterrupted feature well? Does your reader sit and devour your magazine at one sitting, or will he dip in again and again over a period of weeks? How important is photography and illustration to your content? How compatible are the look of your ads and your edit pages?

It's a good idea, if you think that your ability to change ad positions and adjacencies is limited, just to flow a fairly typical ad lineup onto an imposition sheet, and then begin to fill in the blanks with your editorial configurations. Fiddle with your flow until you think you've covered all the bases and have a nice rhythm to your contents.

Who else should I involve?

You can't do much without a great designer, however you should work only with a designer who shares your enthusiasm for your readers and for your new vision of the magazine. Once you've found this paragon, both of you should start thinking about typefaces, art direction and column widths that increase or slow the reader's pace. Let your art director come up with some sample concepts that use or expand on the best of your reams of new ideas. Discuss the whys and wherefores of every aspect of design with as much rigor as you'd bring to figuring out whether an article or subject belongs in your magazine or not.

After the art director has done his or her work creating dummy layouts, tape them to the wall and study them. Figure out how your readers want to absorb the material you present, and make sure your design is appropriate for your readers' habits and preferences. When you want to make a significant change in the way your magazine looks, make sure that your design grows directly out of your knowledge of how the reader approaches the book right now.

You should also talk to your circulation and advertising departments. Find out whether they think the magazine is salable, whether they think its appeal to potential advertisers and newsstand buyers and subscribers is clear and compelling. If they don't, consider the bases for their dissent. If you still think they're overreacting or just plain wrong, explain why you're sticking to your guns. They may well buy into your concept once they understand it.

Be a realist, however -- not an egotist. Your magazine has to sell itself to many different constituencies. Serving your reader better always leads to stronger circulation and, almost inevitably, to more ad sales. But if circulation and ad managers you respect tell you your magazine is going to be less than warmly welcomed, take them seriously and consider refining what you've done.

Nothing will alienate your most devoted readers faster than discovering one month that you made a significant gear-shift when they weren't looking. Your graphics can be wildly different, but they'll be offended only if you've made it impossible for them to get what they bought the magazine for in the first place. Look at it this way: An opera fan does not want to be taken to a tap-dancing recital just because they both involve music. And every reader wants to have his magazine become a better, more appealing version of what he or she already likes best about it.

Cruise control is for cars, not magazines. Even if you know your redesign is a huge hit, you have to keep monitoring it. Tinker with concepts, ideas, the magazine's flow. Only by deliberately working every single day to make your magazine better and stronger and more interesting will you stay on top of the heap. What's more, you'll keep your job interesting, and your relationship with your readers fresh and vital. And that will keep your magazine at its best for as long as you're in charge.

Elizabeth Crow has been editor of Mademoiselle since 1994. Before that, she was president, CEO and editorial director of Gruner+Jahr.

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