On 14th August 2008, we unveiled our first copy of a computer technology magazine called "The Byte
taste the technology" in our department.
I was on the editorial team.
So, I guess that my recent experience might be of some help to you.
We needed around 1 and 1/2 month to build the magazine from scratch.
Our team was of 12 persons (all were newbies
)
So, with the guidance of our H.O.D we started working on it's creation.
First and foremost was the name of the Magazine and its "Theme" (i.e. the basic idea behind it or the way we wanted it to look like)
P.S. We held a competition within the dept. to choose a suitable name(which received a wide response)
After that, we came up with the section-names. For e.g. Tech-check, View the review, Choke Jokes, Small polls, Know more, Puzzles etc.
Later, we started the big quest or the hunt for articles.
(As this was the first magazine, all were reluctant or ignorant to contribute.) So, we came up with an idea to announce a technical essay competition which would receive a cash prize from the dept. This idea encouraged many to come forward and give articles.
The big question was that of the funds!
But (much to our surprise) our college gave the sanction of the required amount for the first issue (on a condition that we have to do the printing at the college's regular printing press.
)
So, from the next time we will need sponsorship.
After collecting articles, we proceeded towards designing.
Though some printing presses do this work for you at cheap rates, we did it ourselves. We had to use Corel Draw for the final edited soft-copy. (that's the format needed by the press)
As Biggie mentioned, we included a message from both: the principal & H.O.D. right on the front few pages.
We also included the news about the latest departmental activities and photos supporting them.
On permission from the admin, we also printed the interview of Mr. Yashwant Kanetkar in our mag. with
Welcome to the world of Crazy Engineers! on the top of the page in bold.
In printing, we used 90 gsm paper for the front and back cover pages, while 70 gsm for inner pages. The outer pages are glossy.
The magazine is of total 22 pages (including the cover page)
We plan to expand the scope of our magazine in the next issue.
Best of Luck for the creation of your departmental magazine!
Keep us updated about your experience.