Magazine Publishing Project


434-0/434-1
Spring 2001

Syllabus Summary and Overview

Prof. David Abrahamson
Fisk 305B
 (847) 467-4159
d-abrahamson@nwu.edu
http://abrahamson.medill.nwu.edu

Office Hours:
Mon. and Wed., 10:00-12:00


When you begin any creative enterprise, you often make some pretty 
discoveries. You must be on guard against these. Destroy the 
thing, do it over several times. In each destroying of a beautiful 
discovery, the artist does not really suppress it, but rather 
transforms it, condenses it, makes it more substantial. What comes 
out in the end is the result of discarded finds.  -- Pablo Picasso

The key is to get your tools honed to such an extent that the 
tools do their job without too much thought. Then your head is 
freed to do its job. Master technique and then listen to your 
heart. 						      -- Walt Harrington

Publication is the auction of the Mind of Man.  -- Emily Dickinson



I. Contents

Welcome to the Magazine Publishing Project. The section of the full syllabus 
which you're reading now is an overview of the course. It includes:

-- An outline of the major phases of the project, the products we'll create, 
and the requirements that each member of the class has to fulfill; 
-- Ground rules and some general house-keeping details; 
-- Answers to most commonly asked questions about the course; 
-- A description of some of the teaching methods we tend to lean on, and some 
hints for getting the most out of the class. 
-- A course chronology.
-- A summary list of items and tasks to be accomplished.


II. Course Description

Over the eleven weeks of the quarter, you are going to create a new magazine. 
We will: 
-- decide on a concept;
-- design a logotype;
-- create an editorial vision;
-- analyze your circulation and advertising markets and other revenue sources;
-- test the viability of our concept by conducting circulation and advertising 
tests;
-- develop a detailed picture of the magazine¹s needs in terms of staff, 
equipment and budget, and create a five-year business plan to determine the 
financial prospects and value to investors;
-- demonstrate the magazine by writing, designing, and producing a prototype 
issue, and by presenting the concept to magazine professionals and other 
interested parties to obtain their criticism and advice.


III. Magazine or Prototype?

You will notice that the focus is on the creation of the magazine rather than 
on the prototype. Perhaps the most common misconception of students entering 
the publishing course is the idea that the course focuses primarily on the 
creation of the prototype. It doesn¹t, though of course the prototype is an 
important, and engaging, part of the course. The prototype is only one of ten 
major products we¹ll create this quarter. Here¹s the whole list in order of 
deadline:

1. A vision statement that is, a description of the magazine¹s editorial 
goals, strategy, and raison d¹etre. The statement will be written by the 
editors in close consultation with the publisher, ad director and circulation 
director, with input from the entire class. It is meant for in-house 
circulation, though it will be pirated for other documents.

2. Baseline Economic Analysis Report (BEAR) will be completed within 
the first week after choosing your project magazine. Essential to all business 
decision-making during the Project, it will include most of the important 
economic data available (e.g. market size and shares, specific advertising 
stocks and flows, etc.) on your publication's arena of operation.

3. A name and a symbol and/or logotype: Development of the visual style 
of the magazine, its physical characteristics.

4. A market research survey using both focus groups and an in-depth 
telephone survey of approximately 200 target readers will be performed to 
identify who the reader is and what they need in a magazine.

5. A circulation test mailing package consisting of a pitch letter, a 
response card and an envelope, which will be mailed out to approximately 2000 
names from a purchased list of potential subscribers.

6. A media kit consisting of a rate card, an editorial description of the 
magazine (including an editorial calendar), circulation data, an analysis of 
the magazine¹s competitive situation, and a distillation of information we 
will obtain through a market research survey. This document is the first major 
hurdle of the course: It forces you to commit yourselves to a specific vision 
of the magazine and specific formats, ad rates, circulation figures, etc. It 
will include your early thinking on a sample cover and editorial content. It 
will be circulated to potential advertisers and ad agencies. (If you are not 
familiar with media kits, it is urgent that you spend some time looking at 
some ASAP. We have a collection in 301.)

7. The prospectus‹a printed, bound document that presents a description of 
the magazine's business strategy, including specific information on the 
publication's market, as well as the proposed circulation, advertising and 
editorial strategies you intend to use to serve that market. It also includes 
costs and projected revenues. The most complete summary of the business plan 
of the magazine, the prospectus is written by a team selected from multiple 
departments, with close supervision by the publisher and at least one of the 
editors. It is circulated to the people who will attend our presentations, 
including possible prospective buyers of the publication.

8. The presentation‹a live, in-person description of the magazine, its 
strategies, and its financial prospects. The presentation will be given at 
least four times. One is given mostly to Medill faculty, one to an audience of 
program alumni, interested local journalists, and your own friends and family. 
The remaining presentations‹perhaps the most important ones‹will be given 
either to specific publishing companies, or to panels of individuals from a 
variety of companies, including members of each of the publishing disciplines, 
plus investment bankers and venture capital investors. Everyone in the class 
will participate in writing the presentation, and everyone will present at 
least once.

9. The Prototype and the Appendix‹a 48-page sample magazine that 
represents your best thinking on the content, style, and design of the 
publication you¹ve conceived. Stories will be selected from a pool of stories 
written by all members of the class. The prototype is our principal laboratory 
in editing, design, and production, and producing it will involve every member 
of the class. The Appendix is actually a part of the prototype‹a section of 
(usually) four pages, in which we summarize the information in the prospectus 
and presentation. We¹ll determine later in the quarter who will write it, and 
whether it will be written by an individual or by a team. Circulation is to 
everyone who receives the prototype. Circulation is to a list of 2,500 alumni, 
educators, and magazine professionals. You will be given 10 copies for your 
own use.

10. A website designed to extend the mission of the print product you 
conceive.  Working with the editorial instructor, a website team (to be 
appointed later in the quarter) will coordinate the choice and editing of the 
articles that will go onto the site.  Some of them may be different versions 
of stories chosen for the prototype; others may stories that didn't make it 
into the prototype but are appropriate for the magazine.  The team will also 
propose how the website may offer new content to extend the magazine's reach.


IV. Your Responsibilities

Think of yourself as having three roles this quarter: an academic role, a 
departmental role, and a whole-class role. They are:

Academic:  You are here to learn a cross-disciplinary approach to magazine 
publishing. That means you have to learn at least the basics of all aspects of 
publishing‹circulation, advertising, production, editorial, design, etc. 
Toward that end, you will attend lectures and take part in discussions and 
work sessions, but the real key to success in this aspect of the course is to 
pay attention. Make sure you know what each department is doing and why. If 
you don¹t understand something, ask about it. A major tool of the academic 
part of the course is the weekly progress report, which is described in more 
detail below.

Departmental:  Each member of the class will be elected to a position on 
the magazine staff‹publisher, editor, ad sales director, etc. A large part of 
the course will consist of the work you do in this capacity. For job 
descriptions and other information on this part of the course, see Section 2.

Whole-class. The Publishing Course would lose much of its effectiveness if 
it were simply a role-playing course in which each student did one particular 
job for the length of the quarter. To increase cross-disciplinary awareness 
(and to make sure the work gets done), many tasks will be undertaken by the 
class as a whole, usually under the supervision of a particular department. 

Over the course of this quarter you and everyone else in the class will:

Conduct market research interviews. These will consist of some 
combination of focus groups, in-depth individual interviews, and a telephone 
survey.

Write stories. Every member of the course will write at least two drafts of 
a department piece and a full-length feature story. 

Participate in editing. This is an experimental program this quarter. 
You¹ll receive further details as we work them out.

Sell ads over a two-week period to real advertisers and advertising 
agencies. 

Make presentations.
In addition, a number of the ³lectures² throughout the quarter will actually 
take the form of work sessions where you will be asked to participate in 
planning, creating, and making decisions. (For instance, though the job of 
planning the architecture of your magazine falls mostly to the editors and 
designers, everyone will participate in creating lists of formats and 
departments.) 


V. The Role of the Faculty

The course will use the services of nine full- and part-time faculty members 
representing the full range of magazine disciplines. Each faculty member will:
-- Closely supervise relevant departments;
-- Participate in whole-class activities that require their expertise;
-- Conduct seminars for the whole class in their specialty;
-- Participate in weekly progress reports;
-- Sign-off on any relevant written material or documents.

The role of the faculty has deliberately been left fluid. Sometimes we will 
take the role of instructors; other times we will act more as consultants, or 
as senior colleagues, or in the role of your board of directors. Sometimes we 
will have a strong idea about what is going on and what¹s right or wrong. 
Other times we will be as much in the dark as you are. Throughout, our goal is 
not to pour knowledge into you, but to guide you through an experience that is 
genuinely your own. We know from experience that this is a powerful way to 
teach. It also creates a certain amount of confusion. This course always needs 
fine tuning from quarter to quarter, because students arrive with wildly 
differing levels of experience and knowledge of the field, and because each 
new project presents its own problems. If you¹re having problems, ask.


VI. Goals of the Project

 We want you to come out of this course having achieved several goals:

-- Basic knowledge of all the basic magazine disciplines: editorial, 
advertising sales, circulation, design, research, promotion, business and the 
role of the publisher. By the end of the quarter, you should be able to speak 
the language of magazines fluently.
-- Experience in using a cross-disciplinary approach to create a magazine 
concept and to develop it into a viable business proposal. By the end of the 
course you should thoroughly understand how each department of a publication 
affects, and is interdependent on, the others.
-- Experience in problem-solving. This is not a cookbook course, where we lead 
you by the hand through a well-defined series of steps toward a product that 
is the whole point of the exercise. For us, the process is a large part of the 
point, and we¹ll try to get you to take a more active role in figuring out the 
steps for yourself.
-- Experience in management, teamwork and interpersonal communications. We 
include in this the  way you communicate with and provide guidance to those 
above you in the organizational chart, including the faculty as well as those 
at other levels.
-- Experience in defining and explaining a magazine concept to a variety of 
audiences. We realize that many of you will end up as editors. We think, 
though that the ability to explain what a publication is about, and why it 
matters, is one of an editor¹s principal skills.
-- Experience in collaborative writing/editing. This may not be the sort of 
writing and editing that takes place at every publication, but it is extremely 
common in the industry, and it is a powerful tool when used well.


VII. The Writing Portion of the Course 

In enrolling for this course, you actually signed up for two courses, the two-
unit publishing course, and a one-unit writing course. The writing instructor 
will work with you on your writing, and will assign a separate grade. The 
workload for the writing course is:
-- Two drafts of a longer department piece (approximately 1,000 words);
-- Two drafts of a full-length feature story.
Your stories will be assigned by the student editors. When possible they will 
be based on story ideas that you, yourself, come up with, though there are no 
guarantees. You will be edited primarily by student editors under the 
editorial instructor¹s supervision. You¹ve taken magazine writing before, of 
course. This quarter the focus will be on:
-- Developing story ideas quickly and systematically.
-- Using individual stories as experiments to test an editorial concept;
-- Time-saving strategies;
-- Developing the publication¹s editorial voice;
-- Working closely with editors.


VIII. Nuts and Bolts

Location

We have exclusive use of 301 Fisk for the duration of the quarter. At some 
points we may make use of other classrooms or labs, but in general, no one 
else should be working in 301 without permission from the Publishing Course 
faculty. It is especially important to protect the Art Department computers in 
301. They are set up to perform complex page production tasks and are easy to 
mess up. If you don¹t know what you¹re doing, don¹t touch.

The Fisk janitorial staff will tend not to touch anything you leave lying out. 
That¹s desirable, but it means that responsibility for throwing out garbage 
falls to you. We will have visitors throughout the quarter, some of them 
important people in publishing. Let¹s not let them think we¹re slobs.

Hours

The ³official² Publishing Course hours are from 8:45 am to 6 p.m. Monday 
through Friday and you will be expected to be in or around 301 or let your 
department head know where you are. There will be frequent evening lectures, 
and you will probably be spending longer hours and weekends, especially during 
certain crunch periods such as when you¹re producing the media kit, doing ad 
sales, preparing presentations and finalizing the prototype. You should count 
on working or attending class some evenings and weekends. 
Please try to clear your schedule of any evening or weekend conflicts during 
the quarter (i.e., out of town trips, etc.) If this is a problem, talk with 
the Project Director immediately.

Attendance

Attendance at all lectures and full-class meetings is mandatory unless you¹ve 
cleared your absence with the publisher and the Project Director. Please be 
prompt. Time gets tight as the quarter progresses. If you make 16 people wait 
ten minutes for you, you¹ve cost the group almost three person-hours.

Phones

You will receive a code number that will let you make long-distance calls. 
Remember that we have to pay for any calls you make. Please refrain from 
making any personal long distance calls from Fisk. (Please see, and heed, memo 
at end of this section.)

Fax

You may send or receive faxes using the machine in 301 Fisk. The incoming fax 
number is 847-491-4762. 
For outgoing long-distance faxes, you must use a long-distance code which will 
be assigned to the class. 
Paper for the fax machine is kept in the supplies area in 301. If you take the 
last roll, please get another from 204.

Open Meeting Rule

Though it is impossible for the class to make a whole quarter¹s worth of 
decisions in democratic full-class meetings, we want the decision-making 
process to be as open as possible. Many decisions will be made during Monday 
progress reports or at Thursday dept. head meetings. Others will be discussed 
and ratified there. In general, however, you may sit in on the meetings of any 
department you wish. Departments should make an effort to announce their 
meetings in advance through memos or at class meetings. In the event of 
disagreements over whether individual meetings should be open or closed, the 
Project Director is the court of last appeal.

Peer/faculty Reviews

The student who is elected publisher and the Project Director will supervise 
midterm and (perhaps) final peer reviews of students. These will be anonymous, 
and the publisher and director will meet with students to discuss the 
comments. Students will also review the faculty at similar points in the 
quarter. The publisher will discuss the midterm reviews with each faculty 
member. At the end of the quarter, students will evaluate the course using the 
standard CTEC forms. We will also conduct a final meeting/debriefing at which 
students and faculty can discuss how the course went and how it might be 
improved.

Grading Standards

You will receive three one-unit grades for your work in this Project.  
Intermediate grading (pluses and minuses) are in effect. One grade for 
Magazine Development, based on your overall participation in the  
interdepartmental effort to conceptualize, research, develop and present the 
proposed magazine, which will be assigned  jointly by the entire magazine 
publishing faculty. Another grade for Departmental Work will be assigned by 
your departmental faculty advisor in consultation with the Project Director. 
The editorial instructor will assign your writing grade. Intermediate grading 
(pluses and minus, e.g. A-, B+, B-, etc.) will be used. The standards we will 
follow in assigning publishing grades:

A‹requires outstanding, proactive work, both within your department and as it 
affects other departments, and in the overall development of the prototype and 
presentation. This is an exemplary grade.

B‹satisfactory work within a department and as it affects other departments, 
and in the overall development of the prototype and presentation. This is a 
strong grade, not a punitive one.

C‹unsatisfactory work within a department and as it affects other 
departments, and in the overall development of the prototype and presentation.

Writing Grades

Your writing grade will be based on  a combination of the following:
-- Department piece
-- Feature story
-- Miscellaneous writing‹prospectus, departmental statements, etc.
Grades will be adjusted to reflect failure to meet deadlines or failure to 
complete both assigned drafts. Intermediate grading (pluses and minus, e.g. A-
, B+, B-, etc.) will be used.

Publishing Grade Weighting

In an effort to make the grading process of the Magazine Development and 
Magazine Departmental Work portions of the Project as fair as possible, the 
following proportional weighting system for the grading components has been 
established. It will be used to determine your non-writing grades. The 
weighting of the Magazine Development and Departmental Work grades is as 
follows:
Magazine Development: Class Participation in Seminars and Lectures, 30%; 
Interdepartmental Contribution and Cooperation, 30%; and Final Examination, 
40%.
Magazine Departmental Work: Contribution to Quality of Departmental Product, 
25%; Contribution to Quality of Intradepartmental Interaction, 25%, 
Contribution to Progress Reports, 25%; and Final Presentations, 25%.

Academic Integrity

You are expected to adhere to Medill¹s Policy on Academic Integrity, as 
outlined in the literature you received when you started the graduate program. 
Fabrication, plagiarism, cheating and other violations of the code will not be 
tolerated in this course. Please be aware that the editorial instructor 
regards it as unacceptable to turn in a story that uses quotations derived 
from Lexis/Nexis or printed material without identifying them. Whether such 
quotations can be used for purposes of publication is a separate matter that 
will be discussed case by case.

Reimbursement

Most office supplies are available for class use through Northwestern 
Purchasing, but at various points in the quarter it may be necessary for you 
to purchase supplies for the course. You will be reimbursed, but only if:
-- You have obtained the permission of the class business manager in advance;
-- You turn in a receipt;
-- You use a tax-exempt  form. Northwestern, as a not-for-profit organization 
is exempt from paying sales tax. The business manager will have the proper 
forms. If you don¹t use them, and you end up paying sales tax, you will not be 
reimbursed.

Lockdown

You will not receive grades until you:
-- send your prototypeŒs production material to the printer, 
-- fill out course evaluations,
-- discharge all budget responsibilities, 
-- furnish faculty with required information (everything from advertising 
call reports to new resources you¹ve discovered), 
-- prepare envelopes for prototype mailing, 
-- clean up and put things away,
-- write a lockdown memo outlining your wise thoughts on your position for 
those who succeed you.

A ³Captain Lockdown² will be appointed by the publisher to ensure that these 
tasks are completed.


IX. Questions and Answers

Is it true I¹m not going to get to sleep for the next ten weeks?

The course demands a lot of time, especially compared to ordinary college 
courses. But we like to compare it with a job in the publishing industry, by 
which standard, it¹s pretty tame: forty to fifty hour weeks interspersed with 
occasional crunches. Two caveats: (1) Each class has its own style. We¹ve 
seen groups that left at five, all done. Others commenced all-nighters in week 
two. It¹s partly your choice. (2) The art department really does put in long 
hours. This is partly a matter of difficult, unfamiliar software, and partly 
the nature of design. Alumni legends suggest the faculty stand over you with a 
whip. To us, it seems that we select driven, quality-oriented students and 
then get out of their way. If you work long hours, we suspect that it will be 
to meet your own high standards. Then it¹s actually kind of fun. 

Can I hold a job during this quarter?

Almost certainly not, and we strongly discourage even trying. If you think you 
should be an exception, talk to the Project Director.

Why do we have to use elections to select people for jobs?

Because the alternatives are worse. We don¹t like the idea of the faculty 
appointing students to jobs: It invites us to prejudge you, and it leaves you 
out of a key decision in the making of your magazine. And though elections 
don¹t always work out to everyone¹s satisfaction, they at least give you a 
chance to influence the outcome‹unlike choosing by lot. We¹re open to an 
ingenious alternative, but we haven¹t come up with one yet and we don¹t expect 
to be persuaded to change our minds on this one.

What if I don't like the job I'm chosen for?

The issue hasn¹t come up often. And we almost never hear complaints about jobs 
by the end of the class. The fact is that all of these jobs are interesting 
and challenging (and many of them are not what they appear to be at first 
glance). 

There doesn¹t seem to be much time budgeted for writing 
instruction.

True. That¹s because most of the writing instruction will be filtered through 
the student editors. There will be story conferences for each first draft, 
lots of coaching, and full edits for the stories that actually appear in the 
prototype. If your story isn¹t chosen, you¹ll get additional coaching and 
comments from the writing instructor.

Will I get a clip in the prototype?

Maybe. Maybe not. Our goal is to use the writing process to develop our 
magazine concept, and to build the best prototype we can out of the material 
available to us. The quality of your writing counts, but when push comes to 
shove we may have to choose on the basis of luck‹the writer who stumbled into 
a gold-mine of material, the group of stories that fit together into a perfect 
package. Two points: (1) We¹ll keep the process of choice as fair as possible. 
And the class gets to discuss each round of choices. If there¹s a good reason 
for the editors to reverse themselves, they will. (2)  Occasionally 
assignments blow up. If that happens to you, we¹ll  move you to another story, 
or to doing sidebars for some other story, or whatever we can think of to keep 
you from wasting your time. It¹s possible that stories that don¹t make it into 
the prototype will have value as free-lance pieces for other publications. 
Talk to the editorial instructor if you want to pursue this.

Could our magazine actually get published?

It¹s happened more than once before, and it looks like Meredith Corporation be 
publishing Raising Teens (the Fall ¹96 prototype). For the most part, it would 
be hard to prevent a publisher from simply starting his own magazine to match 
one of our concepts. What we can sell are our research, our title, the 
prototype, and the details of our business plan. If you have leads on groups 
that would be interested in your prototype, let us know. For the record, 
Northwestern University is the holder of copyright on our prototypes. Your 
work (and the faculty¹s) is considered work made for hire, and you will be 
required to sign a work made for hire agreement. Without signed agreements 
from all of you, there can be no discussions with any third parties about 
acquiring the rights to the prototype, because no one will have all those 
rights. If we peddle your prototype, we will glorify your names to future 
groups, we¹ll try to get you hired onto your magazine, and we¹ll throw you one 
hell of a party. The money Northwestern receives (if any) from the sale of the 
prototypes gets reinvested in the Magazine Publishing Program; in computer 
equipment, scholarships, etc.


X, Course Chronology

Normally, to take a magazine from first conception to first issue takes 12 to 
18 months‹assuming it successfully runs a gauntlet of ³go/no-go² points. The 
Meredith Corporation (Better Homes & Gardens, Midwest Living, etc.) identifies 
12 steps in magazine development:

1. Write editorial statement.
2. Describe target audience.
3. Analyze market ‹ circulation / advertising / manufacturing / competition.
4. Run preliminary pro forma.
5. Develop elements of prototype ‹ titles / logos / cover / tables of contents 
/ b&w pages / color pages.
6. Conduct focus group research.
7. Execute mail questionnaires.
8. Test titles via mail intercepts.
9. Test logos via mail intercepts.
10. Make circulation drop.
11. Revise pro forma.
12. Write strategic plan. 

Because we have only an academic quarter in which to work, we modify this 
process. We do not do mail intercepts, for example, and our ad sales are 
hypothetical. At the same time, our business plan is as detailed as those of 
many actual launches. And we probably more fully develop the editorial concept 
and materials than many magazines. Here is an outline of our developmental 
process:

Week One

Preparing the concept: This is the main work of the first week. You will:
-- meet with your group, 
-- develop your concept,
-- meet with the faculty to discuss your work,
-- prepare a  20-minute presentation to be given at the end of Week One on 
Friday. 

Preparation for staff selection: On the first Tuesday, each class member will 
submit a resumé and clips to the Project Director and announce what posts he 
or she wishes to hold. (You¹ll have the opportunity to change your mind.) The 
staff will be elected on Friday afternoon, after the concept is chosen.

Week Two

Beginning this week, progress reports /seminars will be held each Monday at 
5:30 p.m. As a group we will begin to develop the magazine concept in earnest. 
Starting this week, there will be a midweek department head meeting each 
Thursday at 9 a.m. Each department head (publisher, editor, design/art 
director, production manager, advertising director, circulation manager, 
business manager, market research director) will meet with the publisher and 
(usually) the project director. By the end o of this week, the Baseline 
Economic Analysis Report  (B.E.A.R.) will have been largely completed.

Weeks Two through Four

Analyze competing magazines for editorial, design, advertising, circulation, 
research, and business strengths and weaknesses. This will continue as new 
competitors are identified, and new facets of known publications suggest 
themselves.

Weeks Two through Five

You will conduct market research.  Each department will contribute questions, 
with which the research department will write a survey. Technique varies 
slightly from project to project, but most likely you will conduct a national 
telephone survey. Each student will be expected to complete approximately 20 
surveys. Data will be interpreted by the research department, distributed and 
used to further the project.

Weeks Two through Ten

Propose, write and submit several articles of varying length for the 
prototype¹s various sections, in a style appropriate to magazines in general 
and your publication in particular.

Week Three

Set the circulation rate base (the combination of subscriber and newsstand 
circulation to be maintained). Set the advertising rates (cost per page, and 
cost per thousand readers, or cpm). Determine the magazine¹s name  and logo in 
time for use in media kit ‹ including legal trademark search. Prepare early 
sample of cover. Produce book map  (pacing of editorial, art and advertising 
pages through the prototype) and formats  (allocations and design grid for art 
and editorial), including word counts. 

Weeks Four and Five

Prepare the media kit. During weeks four and five, this compendium of 
documents will be developed to describe the advertising advantages offered by 
your project. It will be generated by the advertising department, but must be 
copyedited, designed, and mailed or hand-delivered. This means that the ad 
staff, the publisher, an editor, a designer, the production manager, the 
research director, the circulation director and the business manager all will 
play a role in the kit's development. Three hundred copies will be printed, 
but some will be reserved for staff, faculty, office and project use. Since 
everybody sells ads, all staff must be familiar with both the information and 
how to present it.

Week Three

Set the subscription and newsstand prices. Each member of the class will 
interview a professional counterpart  at a working magazine and report back to 
the class. These counterparts can be useful sources of information in building 
the magazine¹s business plan.

Week Four

Competition analyses due no later than this; earlier is preferable.

Weeks Five and Six

Gather staffing and financial data for the magazine¹s business plan. Secure 
printing bids for both prototype and magazine.

Weeks Six and Seven

Led by the advertising department, research and sell advertising space for the 
magazine.

Weeks Seven to Ten

Contribute to your department¹s entry to the business prospectus. Under the 
publisher's supervision, each department will appoint a writer to generate 
text for the prospectus. The prospectus will be designed by a member of the 
design/art department, and the production manager will supervise the printing. 
You also will contribute to the department¹s entry to the prototype¹s 
appendices, which will be written by a member of each department or 
subsequently redrafted into a single document. These tasks usually take place 
during Weeks Seven and Eight, with sign-off in Week Nine. Appendices are due 
in Weeks Nine or Ten

Weeks Nine and Ten

Aid in preparing  scripts, ³boards², ³playbills² and  videos and rehearsals 
for final presentations.

Weeks Ten and Eleven

State and defend your department¹s assumptions in rehearsals and presentations 
before faculty, friends, family and alumni, and publishing executives. 
Participate in the end-of-the-quarter lockdown. Participate in the last-
Thursday wrap-up meeting: On  the last Thursday of class, we will discuss the 
quarter¹s experience from both student and faculty viewpoints. 

You are expected to be on hand until the prototype is shipped at 5:00 p.m. on 
Friday, the last day of the term, unless specifically excused by the Project 
Director.


XI. Summary of Project Tasks

Vision Statement: For Focus Interviews and Media Kit, Etc.

B.E.A.R.: Baseline Economic Analysis Report.

Name and Logotype: For Focus Interviews and Media Kit, Etc.

Market Research materials: For focus groups, in-depth interviews and surveys

Circulation Mailing: Test mailing piece for circulation test.

Media Kit: Mission Statement, Publisher¹s Letter, Rate Card, Editorial 
Calendar and Sample, TOC, Advertising Contract, Competition, Circulation, 
Layouts, Letterhead and Business Card.

Prototype Development: Covers, TOC, Editor¹s Letter, Staff Column, 
Advertising, Openers, Features, Departments and Appendices.

Prospectus: Business Mission, Facts, Arguments an Appendices. 

Presentations: Preparation of Script, Screens, Invitations and Oral 
presentations, plus "Mini-Prototype" for panelists at presentations. 

Prototype Production: Art, Photo, Disk Preparation, Proof Bluelines, Color 
Proof of Cover.

Distribution and Mailing: Of Prototype and M@M newsletter and Return of Art, 
Photos, Ad Proofs and Film.

Website: Design, produce and post the Project magazine's World Wide Web home 
page, with links to supporting editorial, publishing and administrative pages.

Project "Poster" Panel: Preparation and Installation on the Third Floor hall, 
Fisk. 



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