The Newsletter for Journal Publishers
Allen Press, Inc.
November/December 1997

AllenAir/ISAL Delivery vs. Surface Mail
A Comparative Study

By Sonny Williams, Director, Allen Distribution International
and Gene Kean, Marketing Consultant and Researcher, Allen Press, Inc.

It is ironic, however, that while some publishers race to find quicker ways to process and print their issues, the time gained can be lost if journals are put on a "slow boat." Although studies conducted by Allen Press reveal that modern ships move the mail much faster than in the past, more and more overseas subscribers prefer receiving their journals by air delivery.

At least 93 percent of journals delivered overseas by AllenAir™ reach their readers within five to 30 days. Although the actual air delivery takes only a few days, the longer average delivery time in many countries is caused by the slow movement of mail within those countries.

It takes up to three months (90 days) for the same percentage of mail sent by surface mail to reach the same destinations. Surprisingly, though, AllenAir costs little more than conventional surface delivery and considerably less than regular airmail. This airlift/surface delivery system now includes almost 130 countries outside of North America.

This is the only study of this kind that we know. The United States Postal Service (U.S.P.S.) and expediting companies can estimate when airlift shipments touch down in countries, yet they have no studies of actual delivery times of the materials within the countries. This article attempts to answer many questions that not even the U.S.P.S. or expediting companies are able to answer.

We hope that the detailed information will be of use to you in deciding between various methods of overseas publication distribution. At Allen Press, we will continue our commitment to meeting the expectations of publishers, editors, and researchers through continuous improvement.

IMPORTANCE OF
RAPID, RELIABLE DELIVERY

Rapid, reliable delivery of printed journals overseas may be critical not only in expanding your foreign markets, but in preserving them for the future. For some U.S.-based international scientific and medical societies, up to 40 percent of the library subscriptions and memberships are from overseas.

With this many international subscribers, service to the overseas markets should be as important as the domestic market. Some societies, however, take for granted or even ignore overseas markets.

A study of U.S.-published high-technology journals (journals of the Optical Society, IEEE, and American Physical Society) showed that more than 90 percent of the non-U.S. purchases were made by the top 15 industrialized countries. There is a strong journals market overseas, represented by the major industrialized countries in Europe and the Pacific Rim, which includes Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Taiwan.

Despite advances in electronic publishing, the demand for printed journals still continues to grow. Medical and educational needs in all countries continue to create demand for new technology, new fields, and more new journals in printed form.

An Allen Press three-year study of 22 U.S. society journals showed that 55 percent of their new library subscriptions were from countries outside North America.

AN OVERVIEW OF
STUDY PROCEDURES

To help our customers better understand the time it takes their journals to be delivered to distant parts of the world, we sent surveys with journals to 20,000 overseas subscribers. In our study, we placed readership survey cards in the spring or summer issues of 28 different scientific and medical publications going overseas.

Of the 28 publications used in the survey, half were delivered overseas by AllenAir ISAL (International Surface Air Lift). The other half were delivered by the U.S. Postal Service Periodicals Class surface mail (the most commonly used method for journal distribution).

Mailings were spread over six months to measure average delivery results from several time periods. The journal issues were mailed in clear polywrap-sealed bags with the subscriber address on a mail sheet showing through the wrapper.

The date of mailing was stamped on each survey card so each recipient could know and record the exact number of days the journal took to arrive. There was a 20 percent response rate, with more than 4,000 readers in 130 countries answering survey questions. Some 3,500 readers (87.5 percent) answered all questions.

This provided us a sampling from 28 separate studies comparing airlifted delivery with delivery by ocean freight. The results were then averaged together to determine the average delivery time within each country for each method of
delivery.

OVERSEAS JOURNAL DELIVERY
STUDY FINDINGS

The survey findings are presented in Tables 1–4. We use the survey results to answer many questions we receive related to delivery of journals overseas:

Q: How does AllenAir ISAL delivery time compare with that of surface mail to overseas subscribers?

A: On average, mail delivered by AllenAir was three times faster than mail delivered by surface mail. Surface mail required an average of one and a half months extra for delivery. Our parallel study indicated that AllenAir delivered 93 percent of journals worldwide within 5­30 days, with nearly all journals delivered in less than six weeks.

By comparison, it took 90 days (three months) for the same percentage of mail sent by U.S.P.S. Periodicals Class surface mail to reach those same destinations. Only 25 percent of deliveries sent by surface mail were made in 40 days or fewer. Examples of some of the longest surface mail delivery times were 104 days within Germany, 91 days within Bolivia, 112 days within India, and 105 days within China (Tables 1­4).

Our study did show that delivery by sea vessels to the port of entry is much faster than it was several years ago. Ships now are faster; unloading is faster, too.

Q: How does mail delivery within each country affect delivery?

A: Some countries are much better than others in delivering mail. The fastest delivery time recorded was seven days from ADI to a subscriber in the U.K. and seven-day deliveries within Japan. Italy, however, is a different case.

While it took only about 4­5 days for airlifted mail to reach Italy, it took an average of another 25.5 days for mail to be delivered within Italy. It took four to five times as much time to deliver the mail within the country as it took for it to reach the port of entry.

The ADI study showed that journals sent by surface mail to Italy took an average of 77 days to be delivered to the subscribers. Airlifted mail to the same subscribers would have saved an average of 47 days (Table 1).

Mail to larger countries such as India and China had the longest delivery times. For example, the delivery time from the U.S. by surface mail to some subscribers within India was 112 days. By comparison, mail sent from the U.S. by AllenAir was delivered to subscribers within India in an average of only 23 days.

Delivery of mail to India by AllenAir was faster by 89 days (almost three months faster) on average. We found this ratio to be true for many other countries. Sending journals by airlift does not necessarily guarantee quick delivery, but it does ensure delivery three times faster than surface mail.

Q: How satisfied are overseas subscribers with airlift delivery?

A: Of the respondents to this question, 96 percent said they were satisfied with the delivery of their journals by airlift.

In another question comparing the delivery services to others, 93 percent said the AllenAir ISAL delivery of journals was much better (37 percent) or the same as (56 percent) the delivery of other journals they received, although some of their journals were received from Europe.

Q: How satisfied are overseas subscribers with surface mail delivery?

A: In general, 75 percent of the subscribers receiving journals sent to them by ocean freight are satisfied with the overall delivery, with 8 percent saying they are very satisfied.

Twenty-five percent of the overseas subscribers to these scientific and medical journals, however, are not satisfied with surface mail delivery. Many of these subscribers said they would like faster delivery, but they did not all indicate that they would pay extra for airlift delivery.

Although 63 percent of the scientists receiving these journals by surface mail said the delivery was the same or better than the delivery of other journals they received, 37 percent of overseas subscribers receiving their journals by surface mail said the delivery of their subscriptions was slower than other journals they received. This is an indication that they received other journals by airlift delivery. They complained about the slowness of surface mail delivery as well as the slowness of mail delivered within their own countries.

Q: Did journals arrive in good condition overseas by both methods of delivery?

A: Ninety-seven percent of the readers responding who received publications by surface mail said their issues arrived clean and in good condition. The answer was the same for subscribers receiving airlift delivery. Sealed polybags were used to deliver all journals.

We also asked subscribers how the physical condition of their journal compared with other journals they received. To this question, 98 percent of the overseas subscribers said that journals sent to them by AllenAir were in much better condition (17 percent) or the same (81 percent) than other journals they received.

Of subscribers receiving surface delivery, 97 percent said that the journals sent by Allen Press were received in much better condition (10 percent) or the same (87 percent) than other journals they received.

Our studies show that journals wrapped in sealed polybags (rather than paper envelopes) arrive clean and in good condition overseas, regardless of how mailed. We found that mailing journals in sealed polywrap was a greater factor in reducing claims than the mode of transportation, although fewer claims were received for journals mailed by airlift delivery. We found that the number of claims for lost issues dropped substantially for journals wrapped in polywrap. Sending journals by AllenAir also led to fewer claims for missing issues. (The most common reason for missing-issue claims is late delivery or late publication.)

Q: How does AllenAir/ISAL delivery compare with overseas-expedited mail?

A: After 13 years researching various systems, we have not found any other delivery method that is as reliable, as fast, and as economical as the AllenAir program. Working with the U.S.P.S. International Surface Air Lift (ISAL) program combined with our own in-house services, ADI is able to have our international shipments moved directly from our printing/ distribution facility to the Kansas City International Airport U.S.P.S. facility.

Within 24 hours from the time they leave our docks, publications are in the air on their way to the U.S.P.S. JFK Airport facility for final processing and delivery to their ultimate destination. Customers do not experience delays caused by the delivery middlemen.

Because we distribute more than 300 publications, with all preparation and processing handled at ADI, the U.S. Postal Service provides 48-foot postal trailers at our plant along with in-house postal personnel. This means that journals leave our docks ready for overseas delivery as soon as they are printed. We believe this is faster than the services from expediters who hold mail two to three days to consolidate it for different countries.

Q: How does the cost of AllenAir ISAL (International Surface Air Lift) delivery compare with that of surface mail?

A: Even though AllenAir mail is delivered much faster than surface mail, it costs little more than conventional surface delivery, and it is less than U.S. Postal Service airmail. At ADI, computer software has been developed to facilitate low rates in the sorting and packaging of the AllenAir overseas mail. The actual postage cost per mailing depends on each issue's weight and the quantity going to each of the four world postal regions (Table 4).

Considering the significant differences in delivery times between AllenAir ISAL and U.S. Periodicals Class surface mail, we believe that the AllenAir program provides the best combination of cost and reliable, rapid distribution available to journal publishers mailing from the U.S.

Q: How can journal managers arrange to send their overseas journals by AllenAir ISAL?

A: Journal managers interested in receiving additional information on AllenAir journal delivery services may contact Sonny Williams, Director, Allen Distribution International, Allen Press, Inc. by fax at (785) 843-2112, by phone at (800) 627-0629, or by e-mail at swilliams@allenpress.com Note: AllenAir is a distribution system using Allen Press in-house services and the U.S.P.S. International Surface Air Lift (ISAL) program.  

Table 1

Comparison of Delivery Times to Overseas Countries by Periodical Surface Mail vs. AllenAir™/ISAL Delivery

Table 2

Average Delivery Times within U.S. Postal World Regions

Table 3
Delivery Time Percentages from Allen Press to Recipient

Table 4
Comparison of the Different Mail Rates

Increasing Library Subscriptions
through Member Participation

A strong library subscription base is the cornerstone of any scientific, technical, or medical publication. Not only do library subscriptions generally command a higher price while offering consistent renewals, increased library exposure will enable broader access by researchers that may yield more references and citations in other publications. And as references increase, so too will ranking in the Journal Citation Reports®—an important factor in establishing your publication as a leader in its field. Furthermore, you may see personal subscriptions increase as more individuals have access to your publication and respond to bind-in subscription cards, house ads, and other subscription offers.

However, increasing library subscriptions can be a daunting task. Circulation development specialists receive countless journal promotions and sample copies a week, most of which are left unanswered. And even if your publication is a preeminent title, just reaching the right person within the library itself can be difficult and make or break a successful promotion.

One way to significantly increase your publication being considered for addition to a library's collection is by utilizing the inside source you already have—your members. Your organization probably has many members and/or editors at institutions whose libraries are not current subscribers. And since collection development specialists rely on faculty and department chairpersons' input when it comes to new journal acquisitions, a positive recommendation will generate serious consideration for your journal.

A technique the Marketing Department at Allen Marketing & Management has found useful in identifying these valuable insiders is to cross-reference a list of current members and editors at institutions with a current list of paid library or institutional subscriptions. The members whose institutions are not current subscribers are the ones to invite to participate in what we call the "Member-get-a-Library" program.

The Member-get-a-Library program involves sending the selected members a letter from a society officer and a one- or two-part library acquisition request form (one-part if the member will simply forward it to the serials librarian, and two-part if the member also replies back to the society via a postage-paid reply card). The letter should thank members for their continued support and ask them to take a moment and fill out the enclosed library acquisition request.

"Member-get-a-Library" Cross-reference current members at institutions whose library does not subscribe. Send identified members a letter and library acquisition card. Include a small premium to increase member participation.

To ensure a greater percentage of participation, include a small premium to say "thank you" for the member's assistance. Inexpensive but effective premiums might include field guides, handy reference charts, maps, reprints of special articles, association pins, or other premiums customized with the association's name or logo. Just remember that added weight and bulk will mean higher postage and packaging costs, so pick something lightweight and easily mailed. Or, simply offer a discount on a subscription, membership, or conference for those who fill out and return the reply card. Enclose a bright gift certificate with the letter so these members also feel they are receiving an immediate free gift.

A Member-get-a-Library campaign is just one way a society can use its most valuable resource—its members. Cooperative programs like this one not only help efficiently generate added revenue for the society, but strengthen participating members' alliances with the society through direct involvement in society projects.  

Expected Postal Rate Increases Based on Proposed U.S.P.S. Filed Rates

The U.S.P.S has filed for another postal rate increase. Postal rates have been presented to the Postal Board of Governors and the new rates are expected to take effect about May 1998. For nonprofit mailers, the increase will be in two stages: Step 5 in 1998 and Step 6 in 1999.

Standard Mail (A), formerly named Third-Class mail, regular rates, will increase about 4 percent. Standard Mail (A) nonprofit rates will see increases of up to 20 percent or more in 1998, with an additional three to four percent increase in 1999 (Step 6 in the Revenue Forgone increases).  

Nonprofit Rates
Will Increase in '98

Periodical mail, formerly named Second-Class mail, will see increases as well. The zoned-rate portion of regular rate mailings will see increases averaging about two percent on the average. The nonadvertising and piece-rate portions will increase about eight percent.

Nonprofit Periodical Rate mail will have about three percent average increases in the zoned-rate portion of the mailing. The non-advertising portion of the mail will increase about 11 percent while the piece rate portion will increase about nine percent.

Keep in mind these are average figures and are proposed by the U.S.P.S., but not accepted by the Board of Governors.

If you wish to discuss these figures in greater detail or if you need assistance with any distribution matters, please contact Sonny Williams at Allen Distribution International by calling (800) 627-0629.  

What Do You Mean?

By Karen Hellekson, Director of Copyediting Services, Allen Press

When copyediting text that is to go through production, the goal is to mark the copy so precisely that it slides through the typesetting process with no hassles. A firm grasp of standard marks is crucial; there is a listing in Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, under "Proofreaders' Marks." Nonstandard markings for indenting paragraphs, inserting space, and centering are common, but the most confusing markings generally revolve around deletion. Copyediting marks should differentiate between:

• Delete.
• Delete and close up.
• Delete and retain a space.
• Delete and insert new text.

Likewise, copyeditors need to differentiate between minus signs, hyphens, and en- and em-dashes.

All marks should be read from top to bottom and from left to right. So when marking copy, words such as "stet" or "set roman" should be written above the line, not below, and should appear right above the word in question, if possible. Copy that should not be set needs to be circled. Obliterating words is strictly forbidden: a single line struck through the word is all that is required. All marks should be made neatly in pen and should be dark enough to photocopy. An exception: queries to the author or editor are generally written in pencil.

Copyediting math can also pose problems. Though some texts, such as The Chicago Manual of Style, blithely indicate that mathematical variables will automatically be set italic, texts that use math should mark every instance of italic, bold, and the like, particularly if journal style is nonstandard and uses roman variables. Minus signs, times signs, and Greek letters also need to be indicated.

Heavy markup aids every step of the production process and will result in fewer errors in the proof stage. A few extra
minutes spent marking copy saves hours later.  

Electronic Manuscripts and the Proofreading Process

By Charlotte Waisner, Proofreading Coordinator, Allen Press

Good proofreaders know that each character of the author's work must be looked at, considered, and then checked against the original manuscript. Although proofreaders are not copyeditors (a distinction between the two tasks exists, although there is some overlap in responsibilities), they strive to ensure that the grammar and content are correct and that every word, punctuation mark, and capital letter are exactly as the author intended.

The electronic age has dramatically changed the printing process and the printing company's proofreading role. Many journals now use electronic files (instead of typewritten manuscripts) submitted by the authors.

A significant cost reduction can be realized by the journals when they take advantage of disk submissions by authors. One drawback, though, from the author's viewpoint, is that the printing company's proofreading staff cannot change or revise the keystrokes on the electronic files.

A proofreader should not be necessary once the file is submitted to the printer. The proofreading task should have been completed by the author before submission to the editorial staff of the journal. The printing company is not responsible for catching typographical and grammatical errors once the electronic files have been submitted. In order to keep an article free of spelling and grammar mistakes, the authors must proofread their own work.

If you are submitting articles to your printer in electronic files, it is important that you review current proofreading procedures. It will be time well spent.  

OCLC: A Conduit to the Library Community

By Andrea Keyhani
Electronic Journals Division, OCLC

The database that was started 26 years ago by a small group of Ohio college libraries now holds more than 37 million bibliographic records and is the most frequently consulted database in higher education. Since its founding, OCLC has greatly expanded its services, which are now used by more than 24,000 libraries in 63 countries.

As millions of books, journals, videos, and other materials are released each year, no library alone can meet the total information needs of its users. Through cooperation and computer technology, OCLC member libraries provide their users with affordable access to the world's great library collections and the ever-increasing body of scientific, technical, medical, educational, and literary information.

Libraries worldwide use OCLC services for cataloging, document delivery, reference, and electronic publishing. This enables library patrons to explore seamlessly and easily an integrated, comprehensive collection of both index and full-text information; to obtain what is needed; and to obtain access to it by the best means—whether that is online browsing of an electronic journal or an automated delivery of an electronic document.

In June of this year, OCLC unveiled its Electronic Collections Online (ECO) service, which offers the full text of scholarly journals from many publishers under a single Web interface. OCLC's goal is to provide a critical mass of journals in subject areas that are of greatest interest to the broad library community. Agreements are currently in place with 16 publishers to disseminate more than 500 journals through ECO, with more agreements about to be signed. Users can search across all of the journals, or they can browse the journals to which they subscribe.

All journals are organized by topic area, which, along with cross-journal searching, provides users with exposure to unfamiliar journals. Moreover, publishers have the opportunity to make their journals available on a per-article basis to nonsubscribers. A title page is established for each journal on ECO, with information about the journal as well as a link to the publisher's home page.

Shortly, OCLC will integrate ECO with FirstSearch, its successful online reference service with 65 bibliographic databases, to create true one-stop shopping for full text and bibliographic information. FirstSearch is used by more than 9,500 libraries around the world and is the fastest growing end-user reference system in the library community. Based on the latest IMI Industry Report, FirstSearch was the second most-used system in the information community and ranked first among end-user reference systems in the public libraries.

The ECO business model is designed to provide maximum income to publishers while enabling libraries to select and subscribe to those journals that best meet their needs. Publishers set the prices for the electronic versions of their journals and sell the content directly to their subscribers or indirectly through subscription agents. Publishers receive 100 percent of the revenue from the sale of the content, and they pay no fees to OCLC to load and maintain their data on ECO.

In response to library demands, OCLC has made a commitment to establish a permanent archive and to ensure that libraries have perpetual access to the material to which they have subscribed. This frees publishers and libraries from the considerable expense and technical requirements associated with archiving.

OCLC markets the ECO service directly to the library community worldwide, issuing frequent press releases, service brochures, and direct mail pieces. To keep the libraries apprised of OCLC products, services, and activities, OCLC generates a bimonthly newsletter that is mailed to all users of OCLC services. It also produces the bimonthly OCLC Reference News, which is dedicated to news and tips about OCLC reference services products, including ECO and FirstSearch.

What's new at OCLC is a brief piece that is distributed on a quarterly basis. A list of the journal titles available through ECO, including each publisher's marketing contact information, is kept up-to-date on OCLC's home page, and is also distributed at conferences. As part of its marketing efforts, OCLC exhibits ECO at all major library conferences in the United States, including ALA, SLA, MLA, PLA, Educom, National Online, and Online CD-ROM. OCLC also exhibits at the International Online conference and at regional conferences in the U.S. and Europe.

In addition to its own sales staff, with offices across the country, OCLC uses 17 state and regional library network organizations that contract to provide OCLC services and support to libraries. To penetrate the library market outside of the U.S., OCLC has divisions dedicated to sales in the Pacific Rim and in Latin America. It maintains an office devoted to sales and support in Birmingham, U.K., and has contracts with 35 international distributors in Asia, Western and Eastern Europe, Israel, South America, and Canada.

As a nonprofit organization founded and dedicated to serve the needs of libraries, OCLC is trusted by the library community and has a special relationship with its library membership, which is a part of OCLC's governance. The OCLC Users Council is comprised of 60 library delegates that provide OCLC with advice and counsel; it also elects members to the OCLC board of trustees. In addition to the Users Council, 10 different advisory committees, representing public, academic, research, and special libraries, provide regular input on OCLC's strategic plans. Furthermore, OCLC frequently organizes focus groups to assist in determining the viability and desirability of new products and major enhancements.

In short, it would be hard to find an organization that is a better conduit to the library market.  

Andrea Keyhani is the manager, publisher relations, Electronic Journals Division, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc., Dublin, Ohio. For more information on OCLC, check out its Web site: http://www.oclc.org/oclc/menu/eco.htm.

What Good are Production Schedules
and What do They Mean?

By Sharon Kindall, Customer Service Representative, Allen Press

In case you are a new customer or are unfamiliar with Allen Press, most of the customers with whom we work are volunteer editors. They have to fit their editorial responsibilities around their real jobs. Even when there is a professional editorial staff, there are any number of problems to solve (late manuscript submission, shortage of manuscripts, missing materials, elusive authors) before manuscripts are ready to be submitted to the typesetter, service bureau, or printer.

We understand the problems that the volunteer and professional editors face. Because of that, we do not hold our customers to a firm production schedule. The result is a very unpredictable work flow for us.

Our approach to production schedules at Allen Press is to do the best we can to meet the customers' needs, given the unpredictable nature of our work.

The production schedules that we prepare for our customers are meant to give a general idea of the amount of time one can expect for each step of production. We normally prepare the production schedules by working backwards from the customer's desired mail date for each issue. From that target completion date, we plug in the date the original materials (manuscripts, disks, files, or camera-ready copy) are due to reach Allen Press. That particular due date is the date that the final batch of material is expected to arrive at Allen Press—not the date that the first batch of material is due. It seems that this is often misunderstood.

Another factor that might affect a production schedule would be if additional steps are required that were not anticipated, such as late or excessive corrections on the proofs or blueline. The production schedule is prepared based on what we perceive to be "normal." If a publication has extraordinary characteristics we did not expect, then overall production time might need to be adjusted to allow for these factors.

Too often it seems that problems arise during the course of production that one did not foresee would have an adverse effect on the schedule. We cannot anticipate those when the schedule is prepared. Keep in mind that the schedule is only a basic guideline to provide you with an idea of how long each stage will take. We will always do our best to shorten the production times whenever the current workload makes that possible.  

Designing the Text-Heavy Magazine

By John J. Johanek
Ayers/Johanek Publication Design

While consumer magazines can call on an illustrator or photographer to jazz things up, these publications need to work with what they have. And what they have is typography—lots of typography. That type needs to work harder as a design element. The good news is that this also affords the magazine a number of places to be creative.

HEADLINES

Technical and scholarly publications are notorious for their extensive headlines. In working with such a client, I discovered that the more buzzwords they could put in their headline, the more categories the story would be electronically indexed under for researchers. Our solution was to determine which one or two words were the most important and give them prominence. Sometimes we'd set the key word in all caps, a larger point size, a bolder weight, or we'd add color. Frequently we used a combination of all these tricks. This allowed the headline to have the appearance of brevity (and graphic impact) without losing the editorial benefit of being lengthy.

BREAK HEADS

You may want to rely on break heads rather than secondary drop caps to inject a graphic breather into text-laden pages. Many magazines simply use their body text to set the break head, but place it centered in the text column with a line space above to set it off. Sometimes they'll also set it in bold or use caps and small caps. It's possible to go even further. Try an entirely different font—a bold sans serif, for instance. Try that in all caps; try it with a rule below the type or a rule that spans the column width. Try it reversed out of a black band or boxed. Try tinting the box. How complex you make the break head is dictated by how involved other elements on the page are made. If you already have a lot going on with pull quotes, sidebars, or visuals, keep the break heads simple. But if you need to add some pizazz to the design and all you have to work with are break heads, get creative.

DROP CAPS

Often, drop caps can be a supporting actor on the opening page, playing second fiddle only to the headline. Emphasis on the drop cap will bring the reader directly to the beginning of the story. Few magazines really need to limit the size of a drop cap to just two or three lines high. Look at what some of the consumer magazines are doing and analyze whether the same technique might work equally as well for you. Take a look at a drop cap that's bolder, bigger, has color, or sports a drop shadow. Explore a drop cap in a typeface completely foreign to the other type in the magazine, or try one that is tinted, outlined or boxed. When you find something that works, use it consistently in all your feature articles every issue to help build a graphic identity for the publication. Avoid creating a new drop-cap treatment for every feature unless the remaining pages lend themselves to that approach.

SECONDARY DROP CAPS

For some magazines, the design dies from vast pages of gray text. You may find there are numerous opportunities to insert drop caps periodically within the sea of text. If accompanied with a line space at such breaks, a small drop cap (two or three lines deep) can bring just enough graphic relief to make the page more inviting. When doing so, make sure these smaller drop caps are compatible with the lead drop cap at the beginning of the story. Use the same font and continue any treatments for weights, drop shadows, or color.

RAGGED TEXT

Ragged right text will be perceived as friendly and laid back compared to justified text. It also looks less serious and more playful, and it lacks authority. Not all magazines can get away with using ragged right body text, but if your publication prefers to address its audience in a conversational and casual manner, ragged right will do the job. And, it will liven up the gray feeling that all-text pages convey. But don't force it.

Consider using ragged text on some of the body text—in areas that offer a natural opportunity such as the Editorial or the Letters page. Perhaps sidebars, if they're short enough, could be set ragged right. Look for areas where the ragged type can be implemented that won't undermine the editorial credibility of the magazine. Even a small dose of ragged type can open up the overall design.

PULL QUOTES

Pull quotes have many names including blurbs, callouts, and shouts. Whatever you call them at your magazine, they're a great graphic device, and editorially they serve to grab your reader's attention and pull them into the article.

When adding pull quotes to your layouts, remember that the shape of the pull quote has a direction to it that can be used to hold the design together. Also, be sensitive about your font selection to ensure that the pull quote is consistent with other typography in the magazine.

REVERSES

Many of the elements listed here can have added graphic appeal simply by treating them as reverses. A drop cap that's a white letter on a black box, for instance, will change its character (and importance) dramatically. This can also apply to pull quotes and break heads. Reversing out the title of a sidebar will add a design twist and take a look at what a reversed byline will look like. But don't get carried away. One reverse gimmick is enough. Too many reversed elements will soon create clutter.

SIDEBARS

Wordy features are carriers. They usually contain materials that can be broken out into a separate sidebar. Keep an eye out for editorial chunks to extract for this purpose. Don't limit yourself to simply boxing off a paragraph as a separate element. See if there aren't ways to convert the text to something more graphic. Perhaps directions on how to travel somewhere can be converted to a map. Maybe instruction for building something can be presented as a diagram. Is there a nugget of information that can be extracted as a tip that's placed in a framed or tinted box? You'll still be delivering all of the information, but by packaging it in a slightly different format, you'll make it more digestible for the reader.

WHITE SPACE

We've all heard the term "white space," but it is surprising how few publications understand how to really use it. Just remember this: White space should serve as a border around objects. Never make the white space itself the object. When that happens, the design appears to have something missing. That's why when white space is used at the outer edges of a page, it will be more effective.

Some publications elect to create a band of space across the top of each page. Occasionally something is popped into that white space just for graphic variety—a photo for instance, or a sidebar. That white space alone breaks up the mass of text that many publications have as a repetitive part of their design.

BELLS AND WHISTLES

Have you ever noticed how some magazines resort to all sorts of gizmos to liven up text-heavy design? Be careful. Overusing borders, bands, dingbats, and colors will not necessarily enhance your magazine's design. Such devices are more effective when used with restraint. Color usage must be selective and functional. Decide where you want the reader's eye to go; then put some color there. Maybe it's just the drop cap, or perhaps it's a tinted sidebar. Don't overuse any one approach. But by all means don't hesitate to do something about all that grayness.  

John Johanek is a partner in the design firm of Ayers/Johanek Publication Design, 8230 Rolling Hills Drive, Bozeman, MT 59715; (406) 585-8826; or on the East Coast at 2003 31st St. SW, Allentown, PA 18103; (610) 797-8253. The company specializes in start-up designs and redesigns of magazines, journals, and other publications. This article is reprinted from Editors Only by permission of the author.

Educom magazine incorporates the use of icons with department overlines. This ensures that there will always be some sort of visual for the opening page. Such visuals also can be photographic or created in color. Reused over a number of issues, they soon become a very inexpensive way to add graphic support to typically gray pages.

This page from Minnesota Bench & Bar magazine incorporates several design devices to help break up the text. Bold square "bullets" denote copy breaks while those same copy blocks start with large/small cap-type treatment. A pull quote in large, bold type is set in a sans serif font to further contrast the body text. The magazine's grid uses a five-column format where each column of text is two grid columns wide; the fifth column of white space accommodates things like the extra-wide pull quote and a piece of art—art that's an excerpt from the lead art (another cost-saver).

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