Creating a College Magazine
Starting a college magazine is a serious undertaking, and a huge endeavor, but it is also a very rewarding experience and will look great on your resume. College magazines have provided a launch pad for the careers of many distinguished journalists, writers and publishers. Here are just some of the reasons why starting a college magazine is an incredible idea.
It’ll Help Refine Your Skills
When starting a college magazine, you should look for other likeminded individuals to join you. There are a couple of reasons for this; firstly because doing everything yourself will make an already difficult job much harder, and second because different people can bring different skills to the table.
Decide early on exactly what role you want to play. You might want to be hands on and get stuck into producing content alongside your team, and if you’re looking to get into journalism, this is a great place to start. However, some people are better suited running things as an editor, deciding what does and doesn’t make the cut rather than producing the content directly.
Whichever role you decide to take, be clear about this from the beginning, and most importantly, stick to the role you assign yourself and focus on developing your skills in that area rather than trying to be a jack of all trades.
There Are Roles for Everyone
This is something to consider both for yourself and anyone else you recruit to join your venture. A successful magazine is more than just a group of journalists reporting to an editor. If neither editing or journalism is your cup of tea, but you still have a passion for a particular subject and are determined to start a magazine, then ask yourself what skills you can bring to the table and how they can best be utilized.
If art is your thing, then get involved in designing the overall layout and aesthetic of your publication, or produce some cartoons for inclusion. Whatever your particular skill set, there are potential roles for just about anyone. If you have experience with professional software packages, that in itself brings some extremely valuable skills, and if you’re still learning, what better way to teach yourself than with real world experience? With everything from magazine cover templates to in-depth tutorials for software packages like Photoshop, it is now easier than ever for anyone to learn how to use professional tools effectively and efficiently.
It Could Be the Beginning of a Long and Successful Career
Many professional journalists, editors and graphic designers have built their careers on the back of experience they gained working on a college publication. Even if your future ultimately lies in a completely different field, working on a college magazine demonstrates your ability to commit to a project and work as part of a larger team. There are few professional fields that won’t value these skills.
Starting a college magazine is a challenging, extremely involved and ultimately, a very rewarding experience. Plus, if your magazine ceases publication, this doesn’t necessarily mean failure for the individuals involved. As long as you come out the other side having learned from your experiences, it will have been worthwhile, and any successfully published articles or magazines can be incorporated into a portfolio for future job prospects.
