Internship week 4 - Conclusion/Future

Working at a magazine during the fall of print journalism is a scary time. But when you have a passion for writing, creating and editing, the risk is worth it for the chance to be expressive.

The magazine utilizes both print and digital aspects by their print publication Cape May Magazine in addition to their online website capemay.com. In fact, CMM was once a digital magazine before becoming a print publication (often the opposite in the magazine industry).

The magazine has a steady subscriber rate of over 2,000 subscriptions. The magazine does not actively seek subscriptions - which is something that would be to their benefit to change. While including subscription post cards in their publication is expensive and they have done this in the past and it was not entirely effective.

A plan to drive in subscribers could include giving a free trial (1 free month and then charge their card for a year). The magazine could sell their back issues at $1-2 discount, to garner interest of potential subscribers. Or the magazine could wholesale back issues to the local hotels, with a postcard to get potential subscribers (and include part or all of the price of the subscription postcards in the wholesale price).

For renewals, the magazine could create an email system to remind subscribers when their subscription is about to run out. The website already has a place for people to renew online - or they can call the magazine/mail a check.

The magazine could donate issues to the local Cape May County Library branches, which allows locals to read the magazine and find interest in subscribing.

The magazine has a great social media presence. They are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest. Jess, the art director runs all the social media sites and manages capemay.com and their blog. Perhaps an asset to the magazine would be bringing on a staff member who is solely in charge of the social media. That way they have the time to interact with fans and followers and post a few times daily.

Internship week 3

There are six full time staff members at Cape May Magazine. The publisher, editor, web manager, art director, ad manager, and photographer. They come in to the office five days a week. They make their own working hours.

The freelance writers are assigned articles by the editor. They have an average turnaround time of  a few weeks, but it can be 10 days to a few months. It completely depends on the article.

The ads in the magazine are usually well received - occasionally the magazine has been told they have too many advertisements. On the other hand, they used to get letters that they loved the content including the ads. They have a steady flow of advertisers in the magazine.

The subscriptions have been consistent since the launch. The magazine has not seen a massive dip or spike of subs.

Internship week 2

The inner workings of a magazine are only seen behind the scenes.

Getting to work in the magazine office is fantastic. Seeing everyone working on deadline gives me the old fashion sense of a print publication. With so many magazines going digital, it is refreshing to work at a place where print is still around.

The editor and staff have a meeting where they throw around story ideas. Some story ideas are submitting but most of them come from brain storming. The staff keeps a list of ideas and ones that have pictures already get bumped up on the list for publication.

Story assignment is done by the editor. She assigns it based on the type of story it is, whether it is human interest or a historical piece. It also depends on the turn around whether or not it goes out to freelancers or in house.

The ad manager helps the small company secure advertising. When the magazine started, they had a pre-existing list from the website. There are now advertisers who are online and not print and vice versa. The ad manager goes to businesses and has meetings to close deals.

The average publication in the summer is very quickly put together (June, July, August). There is about three weeks of the art director lays out the ads and layout. The entire magazine is probably put together in a four week period. The off season months gives the staff two months to work on issues (Special Edition, Spring and Winter).

The social media of Cape May Magazine includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest. Instagram is the most popular, currently. Jess, the art director, is in charge of all the social media.

The photoshoots are handled by the in house photographer, Michelle. The photography is all handed in house. They can take 30 minutes to a few hours. Michelle is typically the only one on site. The art director is remote, she will get outtakes for social media and send them to the art director.

Capemay.com's picture of the day has been in production since 2003. It has been part of every day posts on capemay.com for 12 years. It has only been done in house and never features guest pictures. Pictures of the day are used for stock for the magazine.

Internship Week 1

Cape May Magazine has come a long way since Bernie Haas purchased the domain, www.capemay.com, in 1995. The online magazine became active in 1998 and the first print edition was published in 2006. Cape May Publishing houses Cape May Magazine, www.capemay.com and www.capemayrentals.com, Cape May Restaurant Week, Best of Cape May and Love Cape May.

According to their website information, Cape Publishing, Inc. is a web design and publishing company located in historic Cape May, New Jersey. We are the publishers of CapeMay.com and Cape May Magazine, photographers, and the designer of numerous hospitality websites in the South Jersey region.

The magazine puts out six issues each year, spring, June, July, August, fall and winter. In the past three years, they have published a mini magazine or special edition that comes out before the spring issue.

Each issue is filled with columns and features, written by many different and regular contributors. There are consistently articles from the editor of the magazine, Kate Chadwick.

Cape May Magazine started as an online web magazine and has now become a print magazine. This situation is funny considering that in this day and age it is more likely that a company will go from print to web and not vice versa. The magazine is doing well by having the website in addition to their print magazine, allowing them to stay afloat in a digital age.

The future of the magazine is to continue with both updates to their website and the print edition of the magazine. In order to advance digitally, the magazine has a blog on their website that allows readers to keep up to date on information – www.capemay.com/blog.