How to issue a newspaper

Current legislation allows anyone to become a founder of the newspaper. It is enough to pay the state duty and go through a series of not very complicated bureaucratic formalities. But to publish it will be somewhat more difficult, but many are capable of it.

You will need

• - publication concept;

• - certificate of state registration of the media;

• - the status of a legal entity or individual entrepreneur;

• - staff of creative and technical workers;

• - freelance writers;

• - room for the editorial office;

• - technical equipment (computers, office equipment, etc.);

• - printing services.

Instruction manual

1

Before issuing the first issue of a newspaper, you should be aware of how often it will be issued, if weekly or less on what days, and its volume, that is, the number of pages (however, in the editorial offices the latter are called bands).

By answering these questions, you can develop a schedule for working on the number. It will not be superfluous to discuss with the printing house whether it will be able to take numbers into work at the time you need and give out the finished circulation by the required time.

2

When preparing a schedule for work on a number, keep in mind that some publications may be prepared well in advance. Such texts should be placed on the page in the first place, but the most operative ones from the “urgent to number” series (news, reports from the scene and under. - something without which the newspaper has no right to be called that word) - right up to the point immediately before sending to the printing house.

Be prepared for possible adjustments to the schedule for working on a specific issue caused by the informational picture of the period to which it is dedicated (a specific day, week, etc., depending on the frequency of publication).

3

The first step in releasing a particular issue should always be its planning. The main source of topics for publications are proposals from correspondents (in everyday life - applications). If the editorial staff is large, allowing splitting into departments, the first filtering occurs at the level of the department editor. He must evaluate each application, make his proposals, redistribute the load between correspondents, identifying priority topics.

The same work, but already at the level of the entire editorial board, is done by the chief editor or his deputy. This is usually done on a general editorial meeting. Most often, it is held the day after the next issue, and it discusses the one that came out and the future.

4

The next stage is the preparation of publications. Here, the responsibility of the department editor is to ensure that the secretariat (the so-called unit that oversees the technical side of work on the number) receives texts of good quality and in accordance with the schedule of work on the number.

The correspondent passes the finished text to the editor, he reads it, makes his own changes, if necessary, clarifies the author’s points that are in doubt or returns for revision with his comments. And so on until ready.

Then the text is transmitted to the secretariat, from where it is sent to the corrector.

5

The text read (in use, “read”) by the corrector is sent to typesetting (or, as they usually say in editorial offices, to typesetting). Ideally, an illustration should be ready for him at this stage.

The author of the publication and the editor are obliged to think about how to illustrate each publication at the stage of preparation of the application. Depending on the situation, you can order pictures to photojournalists, instruct the build editor to pick up a picture or photo from photo banks or agencies and other sources, or give the task to prepare a drawing for the artist. In some cases, the latter may need to read the finished text.

6

Converted stripes are usually read out several times by the corrector and editor. In many editions, a duty editor is appointed (all creative staff or only deputy chief editor and schedule editors). The editor of each department also reads all publications that passed through it. It is advisable to report your own texts to the authors, if they are not on the assignment, sick leave, on vacation or a business trip.

7

Finished pages are gradually submitted for approval to the chief editor. At this stage, he must, if necessary, make his own adjustments, including cardinal ones. Not so rare are the cases when as a result it is necessary to replace some texts with others, make urgent changes to the layout of the text, rearrange the strip.

8

After making all the edits, the finished pages are reviewed by all the responsible employees: the editors of the departments, the representative of the advertising service (on the subject of whether all paid advertising goes to the room and whether the advertiser’s wishes for its placement, etc. are taken into account), if there is one, the editor on duty editor, etc. Reconciliation on the subject of whether all changes have been made, at this stage, proofreading can also be done.

If anyone has comments, the work is carried out until they are eliminated.

When all adjustments are taken into account, the number can be sent to the printing house.

note

1. State registration of mass media is a mandatory procedure. Without it, you can issue a publication with a circulation of less than 1 thousand copies.

2. In printing houses of well-known publishers, not only high prices, but also long lines for printing a print run. Therefore, the schedule for putting the numbers to print is scheduled by minute, and the slightest delay can be fraught with serious penalties.

Useful advice

When searching for a printing house, it is not necessary to limit the range of options to your region. An offer that is optimal from the point of view of price-quality ratio can be in another locality and turn out to be more profitable even taking into account the additional costs of delivering the circulation. If the newspaper is aimed at a sufficiently demanding audience, it is better not to save on the quality of printing: it is quite worth it to pay within reasonable limits. With the successful development of the publication, these costs will justify themselves with interest.