Successful media means great presentation

The common wisdom is always, "you can't tell a book by its cover," and there is something to that.

But when it comes to student magazines, that old saying is overrated, at least based on many years of critiquing publications from all over the country.

When I am browsing through a high school magazine that is a mess from a visual standpoint, I rarely find that the content, the writing and reporting, is far superior to what the presentation of the publication promised. 

Maybe that should not be a surprise, considering that if a magazine's editors and staff put a lot of work into page design and visuals, we would expect them to also invest some effort in strong reporting and writing.  

But many high school media contests over the years have been made fun of by at least some participants (particularly those who didn't win awards often) as "beauty contests." There were stories shared about judges making very quick decisions on, for instance, Best of Show entries during national conventions where judges make their top ten list in an hour or two from among dozens of publications. 

Having been a Best of Show judge myself, I knew that people weren't just glancing at page designs and making their calls, but it was always true that we could quickly cull the potential winners from the "others." 

The reality is that when you sort to the point where you are looking at, say, 15 entries, a judge really does need to start reading samples and headlines and looking closely at coverage topics, etc. Turns out that the top publications are all quite well-designed as well as solidly reported. 

Bottom line: I am working on a white paper or pamphlet or something that argues for editors and staffs who wish to do well in competition and critiques would be smart to invest time early in the year on typography details, styles that automate choices in InDesign, etc. They need some sort of vertical grid structure to hold everything together. 

Another way to think of great student media is that it all has to happen together and it's all interrelated. 

Just like everyday life.