On the morning of Monday, November 29th, I, along with a few other students from Foundations of Journalism, attended an editor’s meeting for The Point. Melissa Gutierrez, the Editor-in-Chief, ran the meeting. Because they were hoping to go to print that day, the meeting revolved around making sure everything was ready in order to do so. It was interesting to see what the last stages of putting an issue of a magazine look like. I have considered pursuing a position with a magazine, so this time of observing was very informative for me.
Because it was a Monday-morning meeting, people tricked in as the minutes ticked past 9:30. Some of the editors of different areas had not slept the night before; they had been up putting on some of the final touches. Part of me had always thought that because magazines generally print one issue per month, they did not always experience the same time-crunches that newspaper do. I quickly saw how wrong I was.
A proof of the issue was displayed for all to see. Melissa first went through the pages one by one for everyone to view. Comments were made on possible changes to be made in regards to headers and placements of pictures. Those in charge of the layout made note of these changes. Once the group discussion had died down, the pages of the proof were separated, and everyone took one of the pages. For two minutes, each person read through the page they had and looked for errors and then passed it to the right.
Claire Callaway and I shared a page at a time to edit. Not surprisingly, there are quite a few errors in the issue at that point. There are so many different elements going into the magazine that it is not uncommon for errors to be overlooked. Having been the editor for my high school’s yearbook, I understand how easily that can happen. As the pages were passed, it was interesting to see how different people picked up on different errors. By the end of the meeting, nearly all of the pages had circled around. The issue would be ready to go to print for sure by the next day, and they would have it back in one week.
I really enjoyed my time learning about The Point, and I am interested in getting involved with it. I like how magazines allow for more creativity in certain areas. The Point used a nice mixture of photography and graphic design in order to visually enhance stories. I realized that because of how often magazines print new issues, they have to be more selective about the stories that they choose. They must be sure the stories are fairly universal in order to keep the audience’s attention. Also, magazines have the opportunity to spotlight a picture by letting it fill an entire page. However, I think that there should be variety in the pictures used for each story. I would love to eventually see my own photos printed in a magazine.
Because they were getting ready to go to print, no new work was being done. I was unable to attend the practicum because it was the same time at my Old Testament class, but they planned on discussing how they wanted to proceed with distribution.
