“We take a little bit of an off-center look at things,” said staff writer
Ted Genoways. Another writer, Jodi Ash, added, “There aren’t many
ways we can publish our kind of writing. Muse gives me an opportunity
to do what I do best.”
In any event, working on magazines is usually fun and exciting. As
another Muse writer, Jennifer Wyatt, put it, “I love it when I can write
something that makes people laugh. Anything you can do to make
people enjoy being alive is worth striving for.”
Does your school have a forum where student writers, designers and
artists can stretch their imaginations and creativity? If not, can you
imagine what that forum might look like?Magazine Concepts
From Traveler to Vogue, Premiere to Bon Appetit, and People to Soap Opera
Update, the nation’s approximately 22,000 magazines reflect the aston-
ishing variety and diversity of American life. You may be familiar with
the major magazines that specialize in news (Time, Newsweek and U.S.
News and World Report), sports (Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine)
and fashion (Glamour, Vogue and Seventeen, to name just a few). However,
you might be surprised to know just how wide-ranging the world of
magazines is.
Virtually every hobby and interest has its own magazine, and often
not just one. Think about the last time you stopped by a doctor’s or
dentist’s office. How many different magazines were in the waiting
room? Newsstands and book stores are other places where you can begin
to sample the enormous range of magazines published every week. In
fact, publishers start hundreds of new magazines each year, though, of
course, most of them don’t survive.Choosing a Format Different magazine formats serve the
needs of different readers. Three of the most common kinds of maga-
zines found in high schools today are the literary magazine, the general
interest magazine and the special interest magazine. If you decide to start
a magazine at your school, you will probably want to choose from one
of these categories.-^ Literary magazines publish short stories, poetry
and essays. These magazines often include art in vari-
ous media, such as pen-and-ink illustrations and pho-
tography. Sometimes schools publish a hybrid called a
creative arts magazine. This format includes the
traditional prose and poetry but adds lively feature stories,
serious editorials, arts reviews and student surveys.
-^ General interest magazines have perhaps the broad-
est appeal. Such magazines usually feature a wide variety
of articles in the hope of printing something of interest to
everyone. People, one of the country’s most popular maga-
zines, carves out a broad niche in the publishing scene by
claiming anyone and everyone for its subjects.
(^418) MIXED MEDIA
general interest magazine
a magazine that includes a
wide variety of articles
and attempts to interest
almost everyone
creative arts magazine
a magazine that includes
prose and poetry, as well as
feature stories, editorials, art
reviews and student surveys
literary magazine
a magazine that publishes
short stories, poetry, es says
and art