Community Magazine Ideas to Inspire Your Next Issue

Printing and publishing your own community magazine is a great way to foster a sense of connection among the people of your local community. Whether your publication focuses on a specific interest group or a shared geographic region, there are a variety of creative content ideas and article features that you can experiment with within the pages of your magazine. 

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Before getting creative, remember to maintain consistency. It’s always a good idea to keep segments of your publication ongoing throughout the weeks, months or seasons that it is distributed. This not only gives readers an idea of what to expect and how they can contribute, but also positions your magazine with a professional edge.

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From interactive quizzes to community member spotlights, we hope these ideas are helpful inspiration for your next creative community magazine issue. 

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Experiment With Issue Themes

One of the hardest parts of creating a magazine is not knowing where to begin. With so many ideas and only a limited amount of pages to explore them with, a nifty way to keep the issues of your magazine specific and focused is by themeing them. 

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Successful magazines like SLOW Journal know all about themes, with each issue created around one idea that speaks to the stories, activities and images inside. It can be as broad or as narrow as you like - from ‘The Makers’ to ‘The Colour Green’. This not only gives you as the magazine creator a point of focus to keep coming back to, but it also creates a sense of consistency and fluidity. Depending on what kind of magazine you’re making, the specificity of the themes can also work nicely with whatever community your audience is in. If your magazine is about your local food scene, the themes can narrow in on certain cuisines, types of hospitality venues or professions, or it can be as broad as ‘Sweet and Sour’.

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A Day In The Life

A Day In The Life is an article idea that offers a creative way to engage members of your community and foster a sense of comradery, while also giving readers a peek behind the curtain of a special guest’s life. This content idea is adaptable to whatever your magazine is about, whether it’s your council area or your local footy club.

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A Day In The Life is basically a section that details what an entire day is of someone of note in your community. The article can be structured by time stamps - from when they wake up to when they go to sleep - with photos alongside short paragraphs that explain the who, what, when and where of what they get up to. This fun section is perfect for any community publication as the guest spot can be mixed up in each edition of the magazine, giving readers a fresh perspective on a new community member every time.

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The Mystery Photo

A great way to keep readers engaged over the course of sequential issues is by offering them a game that they will have to find out the correct answer for in the following issue. One creative way to do this is a section called The Mystery Photo. 

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Inside your community magazine you can include a zoomed-in image of something for your readers to guess. If your magazine is themed around something in particular - like sports or your suburb - you can have the subject of The Mystery Photo be in accordance with that theme. For example, if your magazine is all about your local neighbourhood, why not include an image of an iconic spot or street? To find out what it really is, they’ll have to buy the next issue, where the full image will be featured and the subject of the photo uncovered!

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Interactive Component Ideas

Interactive components are a great tool for engaging your reader beyond typical magazine articles. Interspersing some more interactive elements between written essays, columns, letters and investigations don’t only provide great versatility and diversity to your array of content, but it also extends your audience base by attracting readers who may care less about word-heavy magazine pages, like kids or readers on the move.

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Some examples of interactive component content ideas include colouring-in images (or even the front cover!), puzzles and quizzes, and creative competitions (like submitting poetry, short stories, artwork or photographs). 

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Member Spotlight: Then Vs Now 

One of the most notable factors of a community magazine is the fact that these publications can be a place where everyday heroes and local legends are celebrated. Away from the breaking news stories and global events featured in other types of publications, the community magazine shines a much-needed spotlight on the people a little closer to home.

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A member spotlight is a great way to shine a light on the grassroots work the people around us are doing to make the world - or even just our local neighbourhoods - a better place. It also offers readers a lovely stroll down memory lane. For local legends that have been a part of your community for a while, a Then Vs Now section can be a great way to honour their work, dedication, loyalty and history within the community. Feature images of the community member from the early days of joining the community alongside current images, and you can also include some writing or an interview with them to explore how the community has changed over the course of their time in it. Bonus points for recreating old photos with modern ones!

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Fold-Out Map

Everyone loves a magazine that (literally) holds more than meets the eye. This is where a fold-out map can come into play! Including a creative map of your local area or even somewhere completely fictional is perfect for engaging community members and offering them a new way of seeing their surroundings. The ideal mix of something visually appealing that also provides information and insight, a map can be an incredible way of engaging an artist to reinterpret a particular area or dream up a new one. Plus, the fold-out nature is a great way to provide an interactive element to your magazine, taking it beyond the pages and turning it into a living, breathing artwork.

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The creative folk at Fabled Magazine perfected the idea of a fold-out map with their print of ‘An Anciente Mappe of Fairyland’ in their Into the Woods issue. This is a great example of art colliding with interactive play, taking their bundle of pages up a notch with this creative experimentation. The FolioFox team were proud to help bring this one to life with the team at Fabled Magazine and also recently interviewed their founder, Natasa Xerri.

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Pets of the Community

There’s no denying that adorable animal content is amazing at attracting eyeballs! People love a cute creature, especially if they’re a pet from the community themselves. Including a Pets of the Community page provides your magazine with some good vibes that keeps the tone of your publication light-hearted, as well as opens up the options for creating another interactive component to your publication. Encourage readers to send in and submit photos of their own pets - and bonus points if the pet is featured alongside the magazine!

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Tips and Tricks for Printing A Great Magazine

Once you’ve finished making and designing your magazine, the next step is to have it expertly printed and send it off to your readers. When it comes to making decisions about the physical product of your publication, you’ll want to consider paper types, sustainability measures, and any other customisable printing additions, like lamination.

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An important part of the printing process is also the binding - the bits that hold your magazine together in one professional parcel. At FolioFox, we recommend saddle-stitch binding as it’s both the traditional and most cost-effective method of binding. For larger publications, PUR perfect binding is typically used, although as community magazines tend to be on the smaller size, saddle-stitch is more often the way to go.

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Community magazines are all about connecting to, sharing with, reflecting on and providing a platform to the community at hand. With so many creative content ideas of articles, sections, visuals and interactive components to include in your publication, it’s up to you now to experiment with what your readers will love most. Good luck!

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To learn more about our magazine printing services and how modern digital printing technology can benefit your next project, get in touch with our team today. We're here to help you navigate the evolving world of magazine production with confidence.