In the field of information dissemination sources, printed publications are in one of the dominant positions. In the last decade, there has been a persistent trend towards a decrease in the number of conventional newspapers and an increase in their electronic counterparts. However, even now there are many who want to purchase printed materials for information.
Overview of business on traditional newspapers
Those who are interested in the question of how to make a newspaper should think about registering their business with the tax office. The owner of the publishing house will have the status of an individual entrepreneur. The next step is to find a suitable location. Initially, it may be a 3-room living space, which can be easily re-planned into an office space. Externally, the rooms should look pretty solid, because in the future the publishing house will be visited by people and representatives of various organizations planning to place their ad.
Staff
When studying how to make a newspaper, you need to think aboutinvolvement of various specialists. Initially, 1 accountant will be required (when the publishing house's budget becomes large, the number of employees in this profile will increase), operators for typing articles and advertising on a personal computer. Be sure to need your own competent designer. He will have to develop advertising layouts if the placement customer does not provide the required material. You will also need layout specialists and newspaper promotion agents.
Of course, the key employees in this business will be journalists. The development of the publication, which will be released every week, will require the hiring of at least 3 specialists in this field.
Requirements for newspaper material
When considering how to make a newspaper, it should be noted that the average printed publication in a small provincial town is usually published no more than 2 times every 7 days. This enables journalists to collect high-quality material. Almost any publication can be divided into 3 components: the information department, announcements and the program of television channels. It must be borne in mind that the credibility of a newspaper depends on the material it contains.
We must be prepared for the fact that at first ads in the publication will have to be placed free of charge, which will make it possible to form the basis of the media. If you start talking about information, then the bulk of the information is easy enough to get. Fiscal authorities, law enforcement agencies, departments of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and others provideinformation is absolutely free. They are interested in the publication informing people about their work. In the lion's share of newspapers, information from various government organizations reaches 3/5 of the total content, and sometimes more.
Brand and speci alty
Be sure to come up with a catchy and attractive name for your newspaper. It is worth thinking about the reputation of the publication. It is possible in a short time and without difficulty to be ranked among the "yellow" press by the majority of potential readers. This is due to unreliable or low-grade materials. Only truthful and useful information in the publication can help to achieve prosperity.
You also need to decide on the specialization and format. According to experts, now a third of readers are interested in local business newspapers. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the true state of affairs with the mass media in a particular locality where it is planned to create a newspaper. It is possible to publish media of one profile (gossip column, business newspaper, sports news, etc.). If there are many serious publications in the city, it is better to create an entertainment magazine.
We should not forget about the expediency and payback, since the publication for businessmen is able to reimburse all the costs of promotion and promotion after 7 months - 1 year, and the entertainment will pay off in about 36 months. The newspaper must be popular with potential readers and be interesting for those who wish to advertise.
Initial actions
Possible readers of a local business newspaper will be merchants and managers. It is necessary to establish the number of pages, the number of editions produced (circulation) and the timing of the release, and then decide whether any supplements (brochures, booklets, etc.) will be issued. Then you can begin to deal with the external design of the future media. It is necessary to work out the division by subject: information, experts' points of view, news of the locality, a story about open events, jokes, entertainment, etc. After selecting the premises, hiring employees and solving other problems, it is worth starting to search for a printing house where the publication will be published.
Stages of creating a printed newspaper
When studying how to make a newspaper, you need to pay attention to the fact that the media release process includes several stages:
- Typing.
- Play graphics.
- Creating a layout. Prior to the invention of the PC, layout and layout procedures were separate. The whole procedure was carried out in the publishing house.
- Layout - the procedure for placing alphabetic and graphic blocks on the area of a printed publication. With the development of computer technology, the layout procedure moved from the printing house to the publishing house and began to be carried out along with the formation of the layout.
- Printout. In accordance with the location of printed and empty spaces, 4 main printing methods can be identified in the newspaper template: screen printing, offset (flat), deep andhigh.
- The final step in creating a newspaper is post-press. We are talking about folding, blocking, overlaying the cover, trimming, etc., as well as finishing procedures - lamination, punching, varnishing prints.
Categories of computer applications for electronic publishing
All applications for creating a newspaper in electronic form can be divided into 3 groups:
- "Editor".
- HTML compilers.
- Programs for creating virtual books.
The "Editor" application is a comfortable tool for quick visual connection of articles, images, navigation parts and other elements. It has a set of options for editing. The maximum possibilities are provided for changing the text. Such programs make it possible to create any kind of virtual media with an original design. Usually they are not cheap and at first quite difficult for beginners. This group includes eBooks Writer, Desktop Author, NeoBook Professional Multimedia.
HTML compilers are designed to combine pre-designed html files into a single whole. Their functionality is much more modest than that of the previous application, but they are much simpler, and their price is an order of magnitude lower. Even a beginner can easily understand the intricacies of their functioning. Prominent representatives of this group will be eBook Gold and eBook Maestro.
There are a lot of common virtual book formats now ("Rocket", "Microsoft Reader", "Franklin eBookMan", "Palm Dock", Adobe Pdf,Hiebook). They are mainly aimed at reading books through various mobile gadgets. Due to this, the scope of their use becomes narrower, since not all of them are suitable for creating a newspaper. To create media, the best programs in this group will be Adobe Acrobat and BookDesigner, which can work with a large number of formats.
A short overview of layout applications
There are many utilities, including free newspaper layout programs, that can help you create a quality print.
1. Adobe InDesign. This is the most requested application with rich functionality. Now version 6.0 of this program (In Design CS6) has already seen the light. If a layout designer needs to frequently edit photos and columns for a newspaper, then this application will be the best option.
Adobe provides many applications that can greatly facilitate the layout procedure (for example, "Illustrator" or "Photoshop"). In Design CS6 features a "fluid layout" that makes it easy to layout pages with different formats.
2. Adobe PageMaker. The use of "PageMaker" is now not so popular, because it is inferior to "InDesign" and is not supported by Adobe. PageMaker is the forerunner of the program discussed above. However, some companies still use it, as it has a wide range of options and a comfortable interface.
3. For documents where there are many graphs, forms, tables and other visual data, it is recommendedapply the programs "FrameMaker", "TeKS", "Ventura Publisher". They are easy to automate the design of the text of the article.
4. For the layout of colorful brochures, announcements, announcements and other sources of information, where the image is more important than words, it would be quite appropriate to use the classic Photoshop or CorelDraw. These applications are designed to process photos and pictures.
5. Microsoft Word. This program is no longer very popular, but it is convenient to use it if you do not want to install extra software, and the publication is very simple. Among professionals, such an approach is considered amateurish. Word is an application focused more on typing and editing text, rather than creating a newspaper.
Algorithm for creating a printed publication in Microsoft Word
Creating your own newspaper with a text editor is a 2-step process.
The first stage will be the development of the project, that is, the production of a template for creating a newspaper in Word. This implies a series of sequential actions:
- Studying several different publications (pay attention to the location of key elements to understand the principles of layout and placement of text, titles and pictures).
- Determining the capability of the printing device. If there is no printer for production purposes, then only A4, which is the most common, will be available for printing.
- Development of the page layout of the future newspaper. Sketches can be made in the form of a diagram in a draftoption to have some idea of the desired result. In this case, the title should attract attention, but not distract from the main content of the article.
The second stage is the implementation of the project. The technician must do the following:
- Open the program.
- Press the "Create" button. This will form a new file.
- Write the name of the publication.
- Go to a new line by pressing Enter.
- In the "Markup" menu, select "Columns", and then press the "Other columns" key.
- Specify the number of columns.
- In the opened menu list "Approve" click on the line "For the entire document".
- Approve the actions taken by clicking the "OK" button.
- Type text.
- Insert images (if provided).
- Correct the publication format.
The finished result can later be used as a template for an article in a newspaper.
The text of the publication is recommended to be printed in a comfortable font for reading (for example, Adobe Narrow).
Costs and potential profits of the newspaper business
When developing a business plan, there are a number of factors to consider. The first money will be spent on the purchase of paper and the work of a printing house. Costs will be determined by circulation, newspaper format, color, number of pages, and presence of binding.
For example, the price of printing for a publication with eight A3 pages in the amount of 2 thousand pieceswill be about 10 thousand rubles for black and white printing, and 16 thousand for color printing
The cost of equipping a full-fledged workplace reaches approximately 30-40 thousand rubles. Approximately 450 thousand rubles will be required to equip the entire staff. Furniture costs can reach 250 thousand rubles.
Earnings of employees will depend on the average salary in the area where the newspaper will be published, the experience of employees, the amount of work. Initially, you can involve specialists without registration according to the Labor Code.
The business plan of the publication also involves the calculation of potential income from the sale of the newspaper, the rental of advertising space, the cost of space for private ads. If, for example, we assume that the average print media costs 15 rubles, then with the sale of 2 thousand newspapers, the profit will be about 30 thousand rubles. Advertising revenue may initially be 1 thousand rubles, but over time it will increase. Much will depend on the circulation of the newspaper.
With a responsible approach to the process of publishing a newspaper, all expenses are compensated for 6-36 months.
