OK, last week you gave me breakdowns of all the important job roles in a magazine or newspaper and how they fit into the production process. Remember, so far we're just writing in general about a publisher, and the typical production process behind print products. It's towards this first criteria in your print media production unit.
Today, just to absolutely nail the 'production process' element I want you to write a blog post about exactly how all these people working together get a newspaper onto the shelves. You'll tell me about the 4 stages involved, pre-production, production, post-production and final print run.
PRE-PRODUCTION starts at the EDITORIAL MEETING. These are weekly for weekly papers/mags, daily for daily papers/mags, monthly for monthly mags. They're basically a staff meeting where the editor, the section editors, the writers and designers meet up to discuss and argue about what should be in the paper/mag this day/week/month. Sometimes (rarely) the publisher might be there, especially if there's some kind of special promotion going on with the mag/paper, or some kind of tie in with a product or sponsor. Editorial meetings can get pretty fiery as writers like to battle for their own ideas, section editors have their own ideas for what they want in their sections, and editors have to make sure there's enough stories and content to fill the paper/mag. By the end of an editorial meeting section editors should have a clear idea of how many pages they're going to get for their section and what their sections are going to contain, with wordcounts and deadlines for each page. Staff writers (who have to attend editorial meetings) and freelancers (who don't have to attend the meetings but will be informed by section-eds/editors what they must work on) will have already started writing articles, sidebars (*can you find out what this means?*) and other content. Designers can already be laying out draft layouts ready for the text and images to be delivered. Crucial to this stage is that designers, in liason with the section editors and editors will create a page-plan or proof-plan for the whole magazine/paper where dummied-up versions of the pages can be pinned up and looked at by everyone to make sure the mag/paper flows and works visually and everyone knows what they're working towards. This page-plan will also include spaces for all the adverts that are going to run in the magazine. The editor will then have to oversee the whole process for the rest of the week/day/month to make sure everything comes together.
(TL:DR JUST WANT A PASS VERSION)
After the editorial meeting where writers and editors decide what should be in the magazine or paper, a page-plan or proof-plan is drawn up and section editors commission writers and photographers to start creating the content to fill the pages. The art department start designing the pages ready for text and images.
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| A typical proof-plan or page plan for a magazine, in this case the NME |
PRODUCTION is really the creation of the text, images and other design elements that are going to be used in the paper or magazine. So this involves . . . .
writers writing articles to the wordcounts & deadlines decided by section editors
photographers going out and getting the images required, and then sending them through to the picture editors who then start manipulating the pix according to the demands of the designers
section-editors and sub-editors proofreading and editing raw copy (we call it raw copy if it hasn't been edited/sub-edited) that comes in before sending it through to the design department. Section eds and sub-eds will also be writing headlines and standfirsts for the articles as they come in.
While all this is going on and the art-dept are waiting on images and text, designers will be assembling all those elements of the magazine/paper that aren't created by the staff - i.e putting together the front cover/front page (the front cover shot is usually sorted first because it needs the most work) with the masthead (*can you find out what this means?*) and headlines, all the ads, content pages, contact details for the paper or magazine, or adding articles/shots that have already come in or been held over from previous days/weeks/months. They will continue to work towards the proof-plan they've pinned up, assembling each page as it comes in.
SO TO SUM UP THE PRODUCTION PROCESS:
During the production process writers and photographers prepare images and text. Editors and sub-editors check and edit text, adding headlines and standfirsts while picture editors edit images. Meanwhile the art department start laying out those regular elements of the magazine like adverts and contents pages that aren't being still written/created by the writers/photographers.
POST-PRODUCTION is what happens with all this material once it's been completed by writers and photographers, when it's all put together to the agreed proof plan/page plan. Once all the text has been checked and signed off by section-editors and sub-editors, and all the images are sent through to the design/art dept by the picture editor, the pages are painstakingly put together by the mag/paper's art department, including any double-page/single page/half-page adverts, clip-art or graphical/illustration elements that are needed, sidebars, pop-out quotes or visual effects. To do this they'll use Photoshop to manipulate images, and Indesign to put the text and images together into a final layout ready for FINAL PRINT RUN.
So - to sum up the posty-production process.
Post production is where the designers take all of the checked text and images from picture editors, section-editors and sub-editors and put it all together using Indesign according to the page plan.
FINAL PRINT RUN is the ultimate deadline that everyone has to work towards. This is when the Indesign files the design/art dept have created are actually sent through to the printing press, printed out and the magazine/paper is packaged ready for distribution. Editors and Publishers may well oversee this final stage. Final print run matters because if anything isn't checked properly by this point it will get printed anyway - it's too late to correct mistakes by this stage, and readers notice mistakes.
(TL:DR JUST WANT A PASS VERSION)
Final Print Run is where all the magazine/paper page Indesign files are sent to the printers for printing and binding ready for Distribution.
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO NOW YOU KNOW ABOUT THE PROCESS
1. OPEN UP A NEW BLOGPOST. CALL IT 'PRINT MEDIA PRODUCTION - THE PROCESS'
2. Create a subheading 'PRE-PRODUCTION'. Tell me in your own words, using what I've said and also the links provided (if needed), what happens in the pre-production stage. Make sure to mention EDITORIAL MEETINGS and the PAGE PLAN/PROOF PLAN.
3. Create a subheading 'PRODUCTION'. Tell me in your own words what happens in the production stage - make sure to mention the roles of writers/photographers, section-eds and sub-editors in this part.
4. Create a subheading 'POST-PRODUCTION'. Tell me in your own words what happens in this stage, again using my stuff and anything useful from the links provided. Make sure again that you're mentioning some of the job roles you defined last week. It's crucial, especially if you're aiming for merits/distinctions that your explanation of the production process is linked to the jobs you've talked about.
5. Create your final subheading 'FINAL PRINT RUN' and just tell me very simply what this is, and why it's important.
USEFUL LINKS
For me, it's not a deal breaker that you use these links but you might find them helpful for clarifying the process. Both links don't use the same headings as me so if you're using anything from them, make sure you put it in the right equivalent stage/heading in your blogpost.
This link gives a really basic overview of the process.
THIS link goes into way more detail.
Like I say you don't have to use them but reading the second one in particular will give you a really exhaustive look at the process.
pre production production post production
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