Glossary of magazine terms and jargon

This is a glossary of terms and jargon used in magazines and magazine publishing. It has been quoted in Mag Scene, the careers guide from the PPA. NB: terminology varies between industries, titles and internationally
Use Ctrl-F to find specific words on this page.

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U
Upper Ten Thousand		gossip column in Beeton's Victorian magazine The Queen. The name derived from a 19th century term used to describe Britain's ruling elite, from the landed gentry, the aristocracy and the peerage to industrialists and financiers
URL		uniform resource locator. Address for a file on the internet
UPC		universal product code. A 14-digit number carried with the barcode on US titles. An initial single digit identifies the type of product. The first five-digit grouping identifies the distributor or publisher and the next gives the magazine's unique 'BIPAD' (a numbering system developed by the Bureau of Independent Publishers and Distributors). There is then a checking digit. Finally, 2 digits identify the issue. Distributors and the Uniform Code Council (UCC) issue UPCs
USP		unique selling point
V
VALS		Values and Lifestyles – US method of segmenting consumer markets using psychographic (personality) attributes. The principle behind the system is that people express their personalities through their behaviour. Based on answers to a questionnaire, consumers are placed in one of eight segments. Segmentation is based on three primary motivations (ideals, achievement and self-expression) and resources. The segments, called VALS types, are: Innovators; Thinkers; Achievers; Experiencers; Believers; Strivers; Makers; and Survivors. VALS system was created by Arnold Mitchell and developed by SRI International as a commercial product in the 1970s
variable costs		costs that vary with the use of something (as opposed to overheads, fixed costs such as the rent of a building, that still have to be paid when office not being used)
variance		difference between a budgeted cost and the actual cost
vertical hub		website that aims to act as a gateway to information about an industry, for example CNN Money (money.cnn.com) built around Money, Fortune, and CNNfn
VLF		very large format. Printing press that uses much larger sheets than is usual, for example a 1,510mm x 2,050mm sheet (an A0 sheet is just 1 sq metre – 1,189mm by 841mm)
vortograph		term coined by Ezra Pound to describe Vorticist-like experiments in kaleidoscopic photography by Alvin Coburn
voucher copy		free copy of a magazine sent to advertisers to prove an advertisement has been published to the promised quality
Vest Pocket Kodak (VPK)		compact camera introduced in 1912 that became ‘the soldier’s camera’ in WWI. Two million sold until discontinued in 1926. ‘Vest’ is US term for a waistcoat

W
WARC		World Advertising Research Centre
waterfall shelving		staggered shelving used by retailers to display titles cover-on
web		1) reel of paper for continuous printing of long-run publications. 2) abbreviation for World-Wide Web
		common form of magazine printing whereby the printing press is fed by a continuous reel, 'web', of paper. Image is transferred from (lithographic) printing plate to an intermediary roller called a blanket (hence the plate does not make contact with the paper, it is 'offset'). From there, image is brought into contact with paper.
white space		use of space around headlines or images for design purposes
		World-Wide Web. File system on the internet invented by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee while working at the CERN research labs in Geneva whereby documents stored as pages can be linked to each other. Pages can be viewed using browser software that interprets files written using the HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML). Standards set by the World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
woodpeckers or peckers		slang for wood engravers in the Victorian era
wrapper		protective cover for a magazine in the Victorian era. The issues would be collected and bound into volumes at intervals throughout the year. The wrappers – which would be identical apart from the advertising and issue date – would be thrown away by the binders. The pages would be numbered as book-like volumes
X
QuarkXPress		software from Quark for typesetting and page design since 1987. Along with Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, formed 'holy trinity' of magazine production on Apple Macintosh computers in 1990s. Leading position lost to Adobe InDesign in 2000s
Y
yapped		a magazine cover that is slightly larger than the page size. The edges get bent in to protect the corners in particular better. See 1930s Men Only, for example
yield		usually, 'page yield'. Revenue that results from selling advertising after commission is paid
Z
zasshi		see manga
zine		1) amateur magazine. 2) magazine on the World-Wide Web
zip/unzip		compression/decompression utility for computer files

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