The Conception Of A Magazine

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Concerning the conception of a magazine you have different steps that you have to respect and understand to our project.

First of all according to the magazine Cosmopolitan (2012), the creative meeting is the beginning of everything. With all the staff you have to do a brainstorming concerning the next issue. Every member can suggests ideas; it can also be in relation with readers or advertisers. The editor in chief is responsible for and has to create the harmony. An editorial line must be respected: on the values and the message but also on the style and level of language. There is also an important person who works with the editor: the deputy editor who is charge to supervise the office and the creative director.

Then you set up a schedule concerning the validation of the choice of articles as well as the deadlines to deliver those articles. When you have chosen the main theme, you can define the target, the objectives and the constraints. The distribution of the subjects is done according to the skills and affinities.

They meet very frequently to determine the progress of the work, but also complete and correct it if it’s needed.

Then with the help of the iconographer they also think about the organization of texts and photos, but in the case of a monthly magazine it is also the same model. The editor in chief has a right to inspect them: he can complete of refuse them.

There is also several departments who work with the editorial staff and more particularly within the framework of a women’s magazine: the department of promotion is very important, it assures the internal and external communication, the development of partnerships, follow-up of advertising campaigns, organization of events, development of press relations and operations of promotion of sales. But also with the advertising department and for example the department that will test a large number of the products the magazine will present (beauty and accessories mostly) and also there is a department for the subscriptions.

The copy editors read again the articles, correct the possible errors and draft especially the titles, subheads and legends of the illustrations.

Texts and photos can now be shaped under the control of the art director of the newspaper, just before the printing.

The Project

Now we have well explained how a magazine works, we can explain the concept of our project.

We want to set-up an online platform to design the magazine instead of being in head offices but the magazine will stay sold in kiosk. For that every department will have its own space, with first of all a forum to be able to exchange and share the information and the ideas. They also require a space where every department can have access and where the big advances will be given. It will be the "railroad" of the newspaper.

Another space will be needed for all the video and audio part like the Visio-conference for the meeting but also forum and chat. They will also be a space for the archives of all the previous number of the magazines. You can use the e learning for several things, first the have to adapt to the new way of work; they have to accept the platform. Nowadays the already use almost email all the time, to ask questions and share things.

But to be sure it can work, we will test the platform during a first year keeping everyone in the same office, they can adapt gradually.

Our plan for the next three years

YEAR 1: All the staff is staying in the office but they start working on the platform. The concept is explained to them through e learning. Meetings begin to be online, all the writing are set online too.

YEAR 2: Part of the staff can start work from home, they have well understood the concept, and they know how to use it. An open space is still available for the important decisions if needed. A lot of feedback is asked to improve and facilitate the concept in forecast to the next year. Creation of an application for mobile to stay in touch and receive alerts about what is going on. We will provide computer, communications equipment and software and an IT support.

YEAR 3: All the staff works from home. We need to keep a headquarters for the direction an to receive clients if needed (to do partnerships like for the advertising, promotion)

Some costs saving are expected: first and the most important we expect to cut some costs from the premises (rent or purchase) but also the savings of surface and thus land taxes being connected with it. We can also talk about the costs of the installation and arrangement of the inside and the costs about the maintenance.

There could have some savings if you are in co-owners: you don’t have common loads, and other expenses such as electricity and heating. We can also save costs on the employees or the freelance journalists who work from home.

It’s allowed to find not centralized capacities: various regions, countries.

Moreover if you work at home you can expect to reduce some expenses of your home.

Example: percentage of rent, insurance, expenses for household maintenance, property taxes.

Telecommuting – Advantages and Disadvantages

There are some advantages and disadvantages related to the new concept:

First for the advantage you can work at your rhythm without changed so much the habits because everything is already very computerized. You can reorganize your day, have more spare time (for sport, children…) than before if you well organized: for example sometimes it is necessary to wait for decisions a few hours before being able to continue your work. This can work on the motivation of your employees; it can lead to better implication. You can work from wherever you want until the moment you have Internet access. You have no more costs for travels. This may reduce the absenteeism.

And we can talk about a study that was done in China about working at home, by Nicolas Bloom, James Liang, Jones Roberts and Zhichun Jenny Ying.

So working from home can also be called "telecommuting or tele-work", and it turns to be more and more frequent.

According to Census (2010), the number of people who are working from home at least one day a week is over 10% in the United States and it has double since the last 30 years.

They made some experiments and it results that the performance of the people who were working at home arose severely (about 13%)Ã’. So the experiment was in a Call Center, first they were working a little more (in number of minutes of logging in the server to take the calls) due to reduction in breaks and sick-days taken. We could take into account the suppression of delays too. Then they were taking more calls per minute worked.

During the interviews the workers said that it was probably due to the quiet environment. Moreover the erosion dropped over 50% compared to the control group. They observed a greater work satisfaction for the home workers. When the ended the experiment they realized that they had saved about 2000 dollars per year per employee working at home.

There is some inconvenient too, some people are more comfortable working in an open space, to share ideas directly, to speak with others.

Some people who would have felt at ease in oral could be less through a forum or video. However the generation to come is more and more prepared for this kind of exchanges (e.g. Skype, face time). And some people can need to be supported by their team leaders, can be afraid to work alone and feel the absence of favourable circumstances to entertain at the office and after work. They can also fear the negative force on promotion. You also need to have you own space at home to be at quiet.

You also have to be very autonomous and motivated and know how to manage you time.

So to develop the project we need some others different aspects of e-commerce: First the concept of e learning and then the virtual teams.

E-learning

First, e learning is the delivery of a leaning, training or education program by electronic means. E learning involves the use of a computer or electronic device (e.g. a mobile phone) in some way to provide training, educational or learning material (Derek Stockley 2003). Drucker (2000) defines the e learning as the just in) time education integrated with high velocity value chains. And it could also be defined as the use of innovative technologies and learning models to transform the way individuals and organisations acquire new skills and access knowledge (Moeng, 2004).

The advantage of the e learning is the convenience, you don’t need to find a place, and it definitely reduces the costs but also reduces the time of travel and all the logistical constraints because there are no more geographical barriers. So you have definitely more flexibility.

You can have a transfer of knowledge and know-how; you can also improve your promotion of corporate culture. For example a new employee in the redaction of the magazine can have a training when he arrives to be better integrate).

And last it’s better for individualization, everyone can learn at their own pace.

There are also some inconveniences are mostly the apprehension of the IT tool and the computer anxiety, the management of your autonomy because there is no compulsory working environment and no direct contacts, maybe some will not feel comfortable to don’t have face to face anymore (Dringus (2000)).

According to Beard &Harper (2002) the lack of physical interaction may have an impact on learning but you can be effective if you respect the four types of peer behaviour necessary in a computed mediated environment:

- Participation

- Response

- Provision of affective feedback

- Short focused messaging

From the point of view of the company the most important things are that you can have a training of masse, you reduced the logistics constraints and the connected costs, and you have a perfect individualized program. The mains inconveniences are that you have no control of the motivation of your employees, you can have difficulties to set up a perfectly adapted program and finally you generally have to an investment in computer and software, hardware.

Virtual Teams

Now we can talk about virtual teams who are according to the business dictionary, a way to interact through electronic communications. You can be in the same building or across continents.

According to Forbes (2010) it exists four keys to succeed. First, nowadays the global virtual teams are more present than ever and they are growing very rapidly. So to face this new challenge you have to adapt to this new way of management and develop new skills.

One thing important to do it’s the way you are leading your team, in contrary to the located teams where the leader is seen as a facilitator, you role here is to put everyone in the same way and to carry away every doubt. Moreover, team leaders have to clearly define roles and responsibilities.

Then you have to know that a global teams leader has to describe very carefully and in detail how the important decisions will be taken. They need to evaluate different kinds of decision-making processes at different points in a project.

Furthermore, the trust is built differently in virtual teams, as you don’t create the same bonds that in face-to-face when you see regularly the people. The trust can only be established after few decisive results, repeated frequently if possible.

And finally, the way of communication is different. As you can have less influence if you communicate virtually it can be more difficult. But it has been shown that moving your body in a certain way while speaking could influence your voice quality. For example, just walking or moving arms can be effective way to have better influence.

According to Mark Mortensen and Michael O’Leary (2012), the best technology you can use for virtual teams are those who are:

Simple (e.g. no complex setup time) "Rich interactions don’t require rich media"

Reliable (e.g. no need to worry about the quality of the connexion)

Accessible (e.g. you can use it anywhere)

Tom Mochal (2007) discuss the point that to manage your tip, you have to respect several things.

So you need to establish objectives for your team and remind them that they are one, you also have to establish ground rules what it means that even if you are not in an office there are hours that are expected to work or to lunch. They also need to know about mandatory meetings.

Then you have to determine the right technology and also to look for opportunities to socialize.

Moreover you need to stay aware of the cultural differences.

Finally, besides communicating as often as you could you have to adapt and compromise on time differences, be precise about when you expect a work to be done and that it is better to give short assignments.

How we can succeed – Conclusion

If we want to succeed we need to grant our attention on the two first years, to see if people are adapting to the concept principally using the platform and in working at home. We need to know if it’s possible for them to get sufficiently organised to maintain our deadlines (the magazine has to be published every month).

Then we have to particularly focus on the development of e-learning and virtual teams to give to our employees the best chances to succeed. But people are already using principally mails or phone to talk between them even in the same building between departments. So it’s wouldn’t be a big change. The most important challenge is within a department but even there a lot is doing by electronic communication.