Print Media

Candy. Meg. Cosmopolitan. Preview. These are examples of the magazines that I read. These are examples of magazines that I look for in a book store every month. I have a faint idea on how these magazines are produced; I only know that these magazines are produced a month or two months before its release date. I didn’t know that producing a magazine could be so time consuming and difficult.

Our class project for our CA class is to make a magazine, produce at least 50 copies of it and sell it. We were only allowed to give Php30 each as starting money and we were to solicit or ask advertisers to help finance our magazine.

I was assigned to the circulation department. My job is to sell the finish product in the allotted time. We have to sell the 50 copies of our magazine, which by the way costs Php50, by end of day of Tuesday (Oct. 2, 07) because we have to pass the complete report the next morning. Selling our magazines is supposed to be my job but my head department gave me another assignment which is to find a printing press. Christine and I searched and rummage around the UST campus in pursuit for an affordable her printing press. I remember it was after class hours that we walked side by side in the streets of Dapitan when we found the printing press, NITS, and that’s where we printed our magazine. When I got home, I told my mom about my adventure in search for a printing press. My mom told me that maybe she could use some strings in her work so that we could print our magazine for free, or if not free for a discounted price. The next day I told our admin, Pam, that I have talked to my mom and I told Pam all the things that my mom told me. I told Pam that they should give me the lay-out as soon as possible so that I could give it to my mom. At that time, the free printing would be a great help because we were lacking funds and we still don’t have much advertisers and solicitations. Days passed and the planned released date of our magazine was nearing and yet no lay-out was given to me. By the time the lay-out was given to me (Sept. 26, 07), it was already too late. My mom couldn’t use her connection anymore. It was a Thursday (Sept. 27, 07) when I came to school early to go with Pam (admin), Jeseth(editor-in-chief), and Deedah(sponsors) to the printing press that we found before. We had our magazine priced unfortunately our funds was short and we couldn’t print it fully colored. The employee in the printing store also said that it would only take two hours for the printing. We decided to make a few changes in the lay-out and to add more pictures. Out of the blue, we had an idea to make the changes in my home because we have the program that was used by the lay-out artist in my laptop. After our classes, at around 7pm, Margo and I went to Alex’s house to borrow her laptop because we another. It was around 8pm when I together with four of my blockmates went to my house (Christine, Pam, Margo & Miguel). We didn’t sleep so that we could finish the lay-out. We went to school at 6:30am the following day (Sept.28, 07) because I have PE class. After my PE class we went to the printing press together and printed our magazine. I was suppose to go to school the next day to help sell the magazine, unfortunately it wasn’t allowed by my mom first because it was my birthday (happy birthday to me!!), and second because I was sick. By Monday, the magazines were all distributed already and so I wasn’t able to sell anymore.

From the experience, I learned that making a magazine isn’t easy. It is easier said than done. I now appreciate more the magazines that I read knowing that it is the blood and sweat of the people behind it.