Glossary of magazine terms and jargon
As quoted in Mag Scene, the careers guide from the Periodicals Training Council.
NB: terminology can vary between industries, titles and internationallyUse Ctrl-F to find specific words on this page
Q |
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| Quickcut | delivery system for digital advertising files.
www.quickcut.com.au |
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| quire | a bundle of 26 newspapers | |
| QWERTY |
order of first five keys along top row of a standard keyboard |
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R |
back
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| rate base | guaranteed sales of a magazine on which the advertising rate is set | |
| rate card |
brochures showing costs, positions, mechanical data and deadlines for advertisers | |
| RDA | retail display allowance. Money US publishers pay to retailers to guarantee that their titles are displayed | |
| reach |
the percentage of a target market that reads a particular magazine or advert | |
| readership |
how many people read a magazine, as opposed to how many buy it | |
| regional edition |
version of a national magazine with a special section dedicated to a geographical area with its own advertising content | |
| renewals |
rate at which subscribers renew their subscriptions | |
| repro |
reproduction. The film and plate-making stages in the production process | |
| repro once |
the trend towards an image only being scanned once, for example by a picture agency, and then being provided to publishers as digital file | |
| repurposing |
taking editorial content from one media and reconfiguring it to work in another | |
| retail sales value | total revenue received by shops for seling a particular magazine. RSV = average circulation x cover price x frequency | |
| returns |
unsold magazines that are returned to distributors by newsagents | |
| reverse publishing | the act of taking material submitted by readers, for example in response to a blog, and publishing it in a printed publication. In use in the Financial Times in February 2006 | |
| revistas del corazon | 'magazines of the heart'. Spanish celebrity magazines such as Hola! | |
| revistas de tendencias | 'trend magazines' in Spain | |
| RH |
Right-hand (page) | |
| RHFM | right-hand (page), facing (editorial) matter | |
| rights | a publication's ownership of a writer's work, specifically noted in terms of frequency (how many times), location (where in the world), what media, distribution manner (print, electronic) and length of time | |
| RIP | raster image processor. Converts digital file (Postscript data) into a set of lines (raster) that can be processed by an imagesetter | |
| ROP | 1) run of publication: the publisher will place an advert anywhere in a magazine. 2) run of print. The publisher will put inserts in any of the magazines in a run, rather than guaranteeing copies will go to a specific region | |
| roto |
high speed printing process which transfers image to paper with ink retained in depressions in plate | |
| RSI | repetitive strain injury: disability caused by excessive typing | |
| RSV | see retail sales value | |
| run | the number of copies printed | |
| run-on | extra copies added to a standard print run | |
| running sheets |
printed sections of a magazine as they come off the printing press, before they are bound | |
| RW |
Readable-Writable. CD or DVD which can save and overwrite data,
just like a floppy disc. Also known as CD-Ram |
S |
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| sans tabou | without taboo (French). Invasive celebrity photography | |
| segmentation | a marketing technique whereby people are assigned to certain groups - segments - as a way of determining their likely behaviour in response to advertising and other marketing techniques. Ways of determining segments include:
Many magazines will design their editorial strategies to appeal to certain segments. |
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| sells | sentence after a headline and before an article begins that 'sells' a feature to a reader. Used in NatMags job advertising as 'heads and sells'. A standfirst | |
| SHRDLU | first five keys along top row of a hot metal typesetting keyboard | |
| sidebar |
short article related to main topic on page, usually in a box
or given a special typographical treatment |
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| silly season | the summer month of August in the UK is very quiet for news and advertising and is so-called because stories and pictures get in the papers that would not do so at other times of the year | |
| SOAP | story origination and planning. Term used by Magnum photographer David Hurn in his time running the School of Documentary Photography at Gwent College of Higher Education in Newport, Wales | |
| spike | metal stake about 6in long on which rejected sheets of copy are impaled by editors | |
| 'a spike of editors' | term used by one of the first five editors of the Daily Express to describe the group when they met for a lunch in 1962. The First five were (in 61 years): R.D Blumental (who had died a few years earlier); Sir Beverley ('Bax') Baxter, MP; Arthur ('Chris') Christiansen; Edward ('Pick'/'Ted') Pickering (who had just vacated the position for a managerial post, was later knighted and became a long-time confidante of Rupert Murdoch); and Roger Wood. | |
| standfirst | sentence after a headline and before an article begins that 'sells' a feature to a reader. | |
| starburst |
attention-grabbing panel, so-called because originally words put on star-shaped background | |
| subs | subscriptions | |
T |
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| tagging | insertion of codes in data that will be interpreted by other software | |
| Paul Tanfield | name of diary column in the Daily Mail until 1962. Like most such newspaper columns, it was written by a team of people. The name came from the Mail building in Edinburgh, Tanfield. Column was replaced by Charles Greville (named after a diarist and biographer of George IV), which was written by Quentin Crewe. Similarly literary references were behind William Hickey (lawyer, man about town and early C19th memoirist) on the Express and Henry Fielding (novelist and playwright) on the Herald | |
| Targa | image file format (.tga) | |
| TCP/IP | Transmission Code Protocol/Internet Protocol. Governs the way data is transmitted across the internet | |
| t/c |
to come; used where a picture or text has yet to
arrive |
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| telesales | selling advertising over the telephone |
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| TGI | Target Group Index. Yearly research data on buying habits and media usage (UK) | |
| 'thud factor' | the fact that a magazine comes across as having a satisfactory weight when it hits a table; it will be perceived as having value for money | |
| TIFF | Tagged Image File Format. Widely used picture file format (.tif) for transferring images between different applications and computer platforms |
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| tip-on | card or other object stuck on to a page |
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| TK |
to come (US). See t/c |
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| TNS Superpanel | consumer research panel sun by TNS (Taylor-Nelson Sofres) in London. 15,000 households record grocery buying patterns twice a week using electronic scanning terminals | |
| TOC | table of contents | |
| TOTs | 'triumph over tragedy.' Popular type of true-life article in magazines and newspapers | |
| trim marks | guides showing where printed pages will be trimmed once bound |
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