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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

College Magazine

  
 
grant
14:57 / 19.11.07
Really? Quality of writing. There's nothing in those loose categories that sounds out of place or improvable-upon. It's all up to whoever's in charge to find, for instance, current events worth talking about (depends on where you are, but surveillance culture or information society - how MySpace ruins lives or whatever - seems like the kind of thing, depending), or new angles on fashions (you could include high tech electronics maybe, or feminist/post-structuralist critiques of fashion...).

Story ideas. Make writers submit either clips or story leads.
 
 
Sebastian Flyte
15:24 / 19.11.07
Crosswords.

They're easy to create, they get people to hang on to the paper, and they tend to be appreciated.

Other than that, I'd suggesting finding ways to highlight cool things or places that people might not know about. Little useful features like 'the ten best places to get lunch' when done properly can be useful, informative, entertaining and a starting point for debate, and fit that sort of description nicely.

I remember writing a feature that went down rather well for the university newspaper I edited on the slightly tacky subject of 50 things you should have done before leaving, detailing some obvious and some less obvious things specific to the college, such as watching the sun rise from the roof of one of the halls of residence...

The key to good features for a college or university paper is working out what people want to write about as much as working out what people want to read about; find a passionate writer at that level, and with good editing you're likely to come out with a good feature.

If anything else occurrs to me I'll post thoughts later... righ now my brain's not fully functioning as this monday draws to a close.
 
 
Glenn Close But No Cigar
16:34 / 19.11.07
(Maybe this should go in the Creation thread?)

Looking at the list of general content, I'd say:

a) Jim'll Fix It Providing Jim's a laugh, this should be fun.

b) Current News Thing is, your magazine won't have either the resources or the frequency of publication of a local or national newspaper, so there's little point going for that kind of journalism - it'll just look derivative and behind the curve. Maybe try to focus more on news features, of the kind that you might see in The Guardian's G2 or Saturday magazine - an ongoing local issue that has been neglected by the local press, say, or interviews with people caught up in national / international issues, say with an asylum seeker. News features on things like a local woman's refuge, or a drugs project, or a homeless shelter might be good, too.

c) Fashion and beauty. The idea of testing make-up / trainers etc. sounds a but boring, to be honest. The brilliant thing about (some) teenagers is that they MAKE fashions, not follow them. Look at the most creative dressers in your college, and maybe to a piece on their 'look', what subculture they belong to, the thrift stores / bizarre boutiques where they pick up their clothes.

d) Sport Always good, but why not complement match reports with opinion columns on both local and national sport, and also report on less mainstream sports - curling, korfball, windsurfing etc.

e) Handrawn Cartoon Strip Great. Remember to post scans to Barbelith!

f) Random Rant Great. You could also do a 'point / counterpoint' type column, with two different writers taking two very different angles on the same issue.

g) 6-page feature. Potentially great, but 6 pages is a lot to fill. Make sure it's all thriller, not filler!

h) Quiz page Good idea, especially if you add a crossword. You could also nick some Sudoku problems from Whatever you're calling the link">here without worrying about copyright.

i) Local band Reviews Great idea. Why not add reviews of local art exhibitions, plays, poetry readings etc. etc.

j) Movie Reviews. Could be ok, but you can get movie reviews anywhere. Why not ask writers to write on their favourite movie, old or new, and why they consider it to be a timeless classic? You could even present this as an ongoing series: 'Sixth Form College X's Guide to Film' or some such.

My best advice, though, is for you and the other editors / writers to embrace the age you are, the things you are into, and the opinions you hold. The best and most distinctive magazines are born of the unique voices of their contributors / editors, not of following a received idea of what a magazine should be like. Got a teenage Marxist writing for you? Let him write about his politics. Got a girl who's into Cosplay or Aphra Behn? Let her write about that.

Best of luck with the prize. Let Barbelith know how it pans out!
 
 
Phex: Dorset Doom
18:35 / 19.11.07
As a former student journo I can say with authority that most of what is said above is solid advice. A couple of things I have issue with:

The Cartoons: These are never good. Have you ever read a newspaper cartoon, in the St. Voltron's Sixth Form Prep Observer or Sunday Times, that was funny? Even witty? The column-inches/time spent ratio is all wrong- a cartoon will take about fifteen seconds max to read while an article in the same space can take up to five minutes. Or you can put an advert in there and make some money.

Sport: In an ideal world curling, korfball and windsurfing in a sports column would be fun, and would turn people on to probably neglected sports societies at your institution. However, sports tend to polarise people even more than politics, so best to identify the three most popular sports at your institution and devote about 80% of your coverage to them. If any other sports teams are doing something interesting- playing in the nude for charity for instance- by all means cover them. Also- no individual sports, only team sports unless (and here is the first point at which I sound like a complete bastard) you can get a picture of a pretty girl to go with the article. 'Gymnast Wins Bronze' trumps 'Rugby Team Wins Cup' if you can get a picture of said Gymnast.
I hate myself.

Fashion: Devote two picture filled pages max. As Glenn says above (more or less) grab the most interestingly dressed people on your campus and tell them you'll make them famous. Do not, however, assign a name to a 'look'- even if your first fashion victim is dressed in day-glo, a keffeyah and a Hadouken! t-shirt do not use the words 'Nu-Rave'. This would be when you jumped the shark from 'somewhat insipid' to full-on NME arsery.

General advice: Get rid of as many of the current staff as your position in the paper's hierarchy allows. They will most-likely be career-minded alpha-persons looking to pad out a CV. They see putting words on a page as a job, and they will produce Work instead of Art. This is why the paper is currently 'somewhat insipid' (new favorite expression by the way). If this job doesn't get you meeting new people then you're doing it wrong, so make contacts, take numbers and e-mail addresses then cherrypick and headhunt the people who don't want to go into journalism after Uni' but have a unique point of view and sense of style. Don't just pick your friends or everybody who shares your view that Dragonforce are hella awesome; aim for a dynamic team, even one that will argue.
Invest in or steal some decent tech: if you're laying out on Microsoft software then you won't make a professional looking product. The pros use either Adobe InDesign or Quark Xpress. Nothing else is acceptable. If you have a decently padded budget invest in them- if not use Bittorrent and get a cracked copy. Introducing new software is also a foolproof way to become editor or at least as good as: if you're the only person in the office with InDesign skills the whole place revolves around you and, if you can avoid becoming tech support for the staff, you can easily turn this into a position from which you can make real changes.
Another aspect of Glenn's advice from above is important to bear in mind: people can get news, reviews and opinion pieces of much higher quality than A-level students can produce through their cellphones nowadays, why are they going to come to you? This is why it will pay to keep the focus local and the content idiosyncratic- nobody's going to miss out if they don't hear what you think about Beowulf or the Troop Surge, but they'll miss out on important stuff happening right under their noses if you're too busy trying to look like a 'real magazine' to report on them.
Do keep us informed. If you can, post a .pdf of an issue for us to dissect.
 
 
Opheliac
12:09 / 20.11.07
Thanks guys - very helpful indeed! I'll try and get something up as soon as the next issue's released!

So as far as the random rant/current events articles go, can you suggest any topics that 16 and 17 year olds would want to read, but at the same time are quite interesting and maybe even a little intelligent?

(FYI, the past 2 Random Rants were on the poor Harry Potter finale, and how much the writer loves the X Factor show on ITV1. I pulled many a face.)
 
 
The Natural Way
07:22 / 21.11.07
Phex, as anyone who's read the Perry Bible Fellowship in Fridays G2 knows, that assessment of newspaper comic strips, is, (although largely correct) in at least one instance, entirely wrong.

Go find the website.

Shoo.
 
 
grant
14:14 / 21.11.07
Yeah, I have to say I often picked up the UF Alligator just to read the (campus-produced) comics and the music column (which was written by this guy). Other stories would pull me in, but I'm a cartoon guy.

I can't remember the cartoonist's name, but Hughes, I remember.

Go find him. Someone like that. Good writer. Voices - think in terms of voices, not what they're saying.
 
 
Tabitha Tickletooth
14:32 / 21.11.07
My two-bobs' worth would be - people. People like to see themselves and people they know, so featuring as many people as you can usually helps boost interest. Cheap and easy stuff like: vox pops on movies, let your fashion page feature what random person y on campus x is wearing today, do a straw poll on a team's performance. Pictures tend to be an easy winner as well - informal shots taken on a decent quality point & shoot will do. As well as working on student publications, I've had more experience than I want with staff magazines, etc and as much as I hate to admit it, people really seem to like this stuff. I probably sound horribly cynical saying that - it doesn't have to badly done and irritating...
 
 
Phex: Dorset Doom
14:45 / 21.11.07
Pigs! I see your PBF (actually -PHEX HIPSTER BATTLE MODE! TRANSFORM!- I saw it before it was cool) and raise you Marmaduke, Garfield, Family Circus, Andy Capp, Peanuts and that one in the Sun with the computer-generated footballers and the evil teams goalkeeper is dressed as Brother Voodoo.

Advantage: Evil.
 
 
astrojax69
05:41 / 23.11.07
did anyone say 'horoscopes' yet? mebbe combine cartoon with horoscope, have some talented artist illustrate them?
 
  
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