Training for the Online onslaught?

April 29, 2006 5:17 PM

Now that all the major magazines are deciding to invest heavily in the "online" business, I'm trying to figure how what skills/software one might need. I've heard the combination of Flash, Final Cut Pro, and good design skills would be a start. What would you add to that? I'm a photographer/imaging specialist now. Thanks.
posted by rotten57 to Technology (5 answers total)

A good design sense and a good business sense combined with how they affect the use of computer applications and the production of major magazine.

You're not there to make it pretty. You're there to make it pretty so more people will look at it and buy it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:55 PM on April 29, 2006

Quark or InDesign, Photoshop, Font management, or Podcasting skills(both audio and visual).
posted by Gungho at 6:49 PM on April 29, 2006

What sort of magazines, and what sort of "online" projects, are you talking about? And what sort of role do you imagine you would play in such projects?
posted by jjg at 7:06 PM on April 29, 2006

It's impossible to speak that broadly. jjg is right to ask what kind of role you're talking about.

Where I work, which would be broadly comparable to a big magazine with an online presence, the design is done by a designer, the video editing (done sometimes on Final Cut and sometimes on dedicated video servers with specialised software) is done by a video editor and the Flash is done by a Flash specialist, if not actually contracted out.

And leaving all that aside, the pages are put together by people who have none of those skills but who work in a Content Management System pulling together all of the above.

By the way, and what's your basis for this?

"Now that all the major magazines are deciding to invest heavily in the "online" business"

It's only happening now?

It appears as if you're thinking of a position in a magazine which is just starting up its online presence?
posted by AmbroseChapel at 8:19 PM on April 29, 2006

Response by poster: Hi all-

thanks for helping me sort out some of the particulars of this online stuff. JJG, AmbroseChapel, I too work for a major magazine, and it looks to me like they've not figured out what to do online. Seems they want something more interactive and less like pdfs of their pages online. I've heard they like Magwerk (http://www.magwerk.com/) as a potential online model. Me, I'm trying to figure how to capitalize on this shift from print to online, and sort out what it takes to find fun, good paying work. Thanks BB for your practical advice. Gungho, luckily, I'm skilled in all software you mentioned.
posted by rotten57 at 10:09 PM on May 1, 2006