Magazine issue-planning checklist

What to take away

• Give the issue a reader promise and a measurable scope.
• Test variety across subject, form, evidence, voice, length, and pace.
• Work backward from fixed release and production dates.
• Name dependencies, kill points, and backup material.
• Keep publication, update, review, and expiry dates distinct.

Editorial purpose

• Audience and central reader need are written in one paragraph.
• Geographic, subject, and time boundaries are explicit.
• Each story performs a distinct job within the issue.
• Recurring departments support rather than repeat the features.
• Gaps in voice, expertise, community, and format were reviewed.

Calendar and ownership

• Every commissioned item has a stable ID, brief, owner, editor, and format.
• Reporting check, draft, revision, verification, copy, design, and proof dates are set.
• Staff capacity and overlapping edit windows were checked.
• External dependencies have confirmation dates and fallback decisions.
• A go, hold, cut, or replace owner is named.

The UK government's guidance on identifying user needs writes each need in one sentence with three parts: who the user is, what they need to do, and why. It warns against needs that begin "as a user" and against needs built around a tool the team has already decided to make. A magazine issue statement fails in the same two ways when it names no particular reader and when it starts from a format the desk wanted to run anyway.

Issue mix and flatplan

• Total pages and printer constraints are confirmed.
• Covers, contents, masthead, recurring pages, ads, and inserts are placed.
• Feature lengths match the available editorial page budget.
• Facing pages and ad adjacencies were reviewed.
• Text density and visual pacing vary intentionally.
• Contents, folios, jumps, and cross-references will update after moves.

Evidence, access, and rights

• Each feature has a plausible reporting and source plan.
• Travel, access, data, photography, illustration, and permissions are scheduled.
• Sensitive claims have an escalation route.
• Image and text rights cover the intended print and digital uses.
• Commercial relationships and reader-facing labels are recorded.

Dates and contingency

• Release date, cover date, on-sale date, and mailing date are not confused.
• Time zones and embargoes are explicit.
• Seasonal or event-led stories have a latest useful publication point.
• Backup material is sufficiently edited and cleared for use.
• Digital pages have publication, update, review, and expiry fields as needed.

The UK government's guidance on retiring outdated content separates two endings. Withdrawing keeps the page on the site, removes it from internal search, and adds a banner saying the content is no longer current. Unpublishing removes it and sets a redirect to current material. A magazine planner needs the same distinction for a dated service piece, because leaving it live unlabeled and deleting it outright serve different readers.

Review

• Planned and actual dates, pages, cost, and staff time will be compared.
• Cuts, late changes, proof errors, and corrections have cause tags.
• Each approved process change has an owner and test date.

Common questions

What must be resolved before commissioning?

Reader purpose, format, owner, evidence expectation, major dependencies, and decision dates.

Is a full flatplan a finished issue?

No. It shows allocation, not reporting quality, rights completion, or production readiness.

How much backup content is enough?

Enough to cover likely failures without consuming the capacity needed for the primary issue.

What should the post-issue meeting avoid?

Vague lessons without a changed step, named owner, or way to test improvement.