What Makes A Magazine 2 / Jeremy Leslie

In two senses, magazines are a time-based medium. Firstly, every new issue is part of a chain of issues. They may be published at regular or irregular intervals, but they always appear as part of a planned sequence. UK title Monocle is published ten times a year, and neatly expresses this schedule on its spines, left.

Newspapers share this quality but until recently have focussed on immediate news. The Internet has changed this focus, and as newspapers have become more feature-led they have begun metamorphosing into magazines. Secondly, the running order of the pages in an individual issue is carefully planned by the creative team to flow with a sense of timing and pace. A lot of care is applied to this part of the creative process, the goal being the correct balance of familiarity and change as the reader moves through the pages.