Stubby47 at BRM

Entry posted by Phil Parker September 5, 2014

664 views

In August, as part of putting the RMWeb issue of BRM together, guest editors Stubby47 and St. Simon joined the team for the monthly planning meeting. We asked them both to write up the day to give everyone a behind the scenes view of how BRM is planned and put together. The electronic version is released today so we'll start with Stubby47's view of events:

----

First off, I must say a big thanks to Ben, Andy, Howard & Phil for their hospitality and making the day so enjoyable. It was great to meet the team and see where the magazine was produced from, both in the location (deepest Lincolnshire) and the office itself (top floor of an old malt warehouse).

As was suggested in Andy's original post asking for guest editors, the issue under discussion was the RMweb Special, with content supplied by and chosen by members of the RMweb community. This issue is due out just before the RMweb Live event at the Rioch Arena.

The day started with a look at the four suggestions for the RMweb Issue front cover. The example black & white front page prints were handed round and we were asked to pick our favourite. Ben also informed us of the different challenges in using certain types of image on the cover and how that affected sales. For example, my suggestion of actually using a black & white image was so much of a no-no I was almost thrown out !

Planning

With that decided, Ben explained how the magazine content was planned, not only for the next issue, but all issues for the next 12 months. The idea is to provide a balance between the scales and eras of the layouts, then interweave supporting or contrasting other content to ensure there is something in the magazine each month to interest the readers. Not every article will engage every reader, but there needs to be a wide enough range of subjects so that there is something for everyone.

The layout content is arranged month on month to provide a balance of interests, but this is often limited by what material is either already to hand or can be obtained (photos and/or text) by the time the issue is due.

Photography

The art of the photographer was also explained - it's not simply a question of taking nice shots of the layout, there needs to be some thought to composition so the photos will fit the format of the intended article, for example a mix of portrait and landscape shots, with areas of blank sky or scenery where the caption can be added. For those potential shots for the front cover, more thought is needed as to how to compose the shot to provide more spaces for all the extra images and pieces of text which highlight further content.

Issue detail

Once the longer term planning has been done, the team then consider the page-by-page content of the next issue. A large diagram shows an outline of each page and the content it will have. There are certain items which are in every issue, such as Ben's editorial or the Letters to the Editor, so those pages are pre-allocated. Then, depending on how much advertising space has been sold, there are a set number of blank pages left in which to add the content. As well as the layouts, there are the Practical BRM pages, the News and Reviews slots and any special pages advertising forthcoming BRM events.

Page Layout & Design

Once each article is decided, the text and images are bagged (yes, really) and passed to the designer to fit them on the allocated pages in the most attractive way. At this point, Andy usually interrupts the process - asking for changes to the images, swapping items around and generally causing chaos. The pages are then printed and passed back for proof reading, before being signed off, or passed back to the designer for changes or corrections.

Once every page is ready, the whole lot is sent to the printers to be made into finished magazines to be distributed to the subscribers and retailers.

Interfering...

After the detailed and fascinating explanation, we stopped by the designer's desk to see the actual process. True to form, Andy decided he wanted images for Bacup altered - "Just make the border a bit wider and taller". We all chipped in with the October issue's front page, making helpful suggestions about the position of the image and the references to this one being an RMweb special edition. My suggestion of changing the BRM masthead to BRMweb was my second strike - another definite 'No!' from Ben.

Detailed planning...

After a quick bite of lunch we joined in a session of arranging the content the next few months' issues. Ben and the team planned and re-planned the layouts until they were happ(ier) with the balance, ensuring a fair representation of region, era and scales was included.

Further planning sorted out the additional items to be included, in some cases over several issues with a themed content linking the articles together. Each of the team was given a list of articles to write, models to build or layouts to photograph.

One surprising aspect was the large boxes of 'stuff' that arrive for review; tools, rolling stock, scenic items. These were handed out with the instructions to 'do something with it' - the something having to include preparation of a 2 or more page article.

Conclusions

By no means is producing a magazine a simple job. It takes time, patience, an encyclopaedic knowledge of layouts and their merits and an ability to understand the readership's wants and needs, as well as meeting the budgetary constraints and sales targets. On top of that, there are the additional tasks of arranging photography sessions with layout owners who can only arrange access for weekends, buildings items to order to meet issue deadlines, attending exhibitions as BRM representatives and still finding time to be enthusiastic about model railways as a hobby as well as a job.

All in all a fascinating day and one from which I have some inspiring and humorous memories....

----

Thanks to Stubby47 for bringing along some of Cormwalls finest products so we could enjoy a cream tea in the middle of the afternoon. We'll post comment from St. Simon next week.