#25 - Magazine House Styles

What's up, blog?

I'm really enjoying researching magazines! One big part of magazines, I found, is the house style. I wasn't familiar with what that meant, so that's what I researched next. Let's review what I learned.

House Styles

A magazine's house style is the specific editing conventions that all writers and editors for the magazine must follow. The house style helps to ensure the magazine has a consistent style. This includes the tone of the writing, font, abbreviations, writing formats, and even spelling.

Having a house style is important because it helps create an identity for the magazine. That's what makes Forbes magazine different from Seventeen magazine. Determining the house style goes hand-in-hand with catering to your audience. This is especially important to remember when my group makes a final decision on our magazine type and audience.

The best way to choose a house style people will be receptive to is through focus groups. I hope to do a fews surveys/focus group sessions with students in my class. I think I would present them groups of fonts, color schemes, and tones of voice and let them choose what attracted them best. I could even include a few of my teachers in these groups to see what their age group prefers. 

In a few blog posts, I will show you the process of creating the house style guide my group will be using. I can already envision something more sophisticated and classy, considering that we are considering making a women's magazine. I can't wait to bring my findings back to my group and get one step closer to creating a great magazine!

References:

Information sources from

    www.theeword.co.uk/blog/creating-a-house-style-for-your-content-why-how/

    www.thoughtco.com/house-style-editing-1690842

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