The Last Best Page

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, March 15, 2001 by John Johanek

The final page of a magazine is often the first one readers see. Whether it's an essay, a photo, a collection of viewpoints or something else specific for your readers, the last page leaves a lasting impression--for good or ill.

They call Montana "the Last Best Place." Remember that slogan the next time you turn to the last page of your magazine; if it doesn't describe your closing page, your magazine probably isn't performing at 100 percent.

Designing a magazine is more than just arranging copy and photos on pages. It means taking a look at the flow and pacing and position of editorial components throughout the issue. All too frequently, magazines use the last page as a catch-all--a place to put all the fragments left over from designing the meatier pages. For some, the last page is a collection of fractional ads, segments of carryover text from other stories, classifieds, or an advertiser index. And for a lot of readers, that's their first impression of the magazine.

Spend a little time watching how people enter a magazine (especially your magazine), and you'll soon notice that a large number will fan through it from back to front, skimming for something that piques their interest. If all they see initially is a blur of ads or fragments of editorial, that interest will quickly wane. Having something of editorial value on the last page of each issue makes a lot of sense even for those who read a publication from front to back (the way we think everybody does). An issue that ends with substantive editorial material subconsciously tells them the issue is loaded with value--"Gosh, it's packed from cover to cover!"

A closing page also shows advertisers that you have a high opinion of the back of the book; therefore, they can expect editorial adjacencies throughout the magazine, including the end. And when those back-of-book pages score high on your reader surveys, you've got a stronger case when pitching back-half positions to advertisers requesting "far forward" placement. In fact, savvy sales reps marketing the inside back cover as a premium space will tell you it's much easier to command top dollar when they can assure the media buyers that viable editorial matter will face their advertisement.

Once you decide that your last page needs some attention--either an updating or a complete makeover, perhaps--your design challenges have just begun. If you go to your local library or the nearby newsstand and look through other publications, you'll find closing pages that fall into five basic categories, each based on its editorial flavor and presentation.

COLUMNISTS

Newsweeklies and similar professional magazines seem to favor the columnist format, making the back page host to one of the magazine's premium editorials--perhaps a guest columnist or industry expert. The page is typically text-heavy, and the layout frequently fills the four comers. Time has used this approach for their page titled "Essay." The format is a straightforward two-column design with centered headline, subhead and byline, and a small editorial cartoon centered on the page. Similarly, U.S. News & World Report reserves its back page as a soapbox for one of the magazine's heavyweights--perhaps editor at large David Gergen or editor in chief Mortimer Zuckerman. And, like Time, the text-heavy, two-column format fills the page.

A COLLECTION OF SHORT ITEMS

There are a few magazines that take the ensemble approach--a page made up of a number of shorter items. The main component is still body text, but the total page is a combination of tidbits or snippets from several sources. Perhaps the best example of this is the magazine you're now holding--FOLIO:. The "Forum" (see page 76) is a collection of industry opinions accompanied by head shots. Copy that identifies each speaker breaks up the text. In a similar manner, Home & Away, published by the American Automobile Association, has a closing page called "Back Home" hat invites readers to send in short items related to a specific travel theme. Spot illustrations animate the text for the six or seven entries published each issue.

Even hard-core specialty business magazines can use this technique. Denver-based Surgical Services Management, for example, has a page of statistical data, labeled "Trends," that uses an illustrated chart or graph to soften the feel of the text-heavy page.

One real design challenge of ensemble pages is creating a central focus from a hodgepodge of elements. Frequently you'll be working with photos of varying quality and sources, text segments of different lengths, or news items of unrelated subjects. And you'll need a flexible design that combines them into a unified look.

HUMOR

Perhaps one of the more popular ways to end an issue is on the light side. In such cases, text is minimal and graphics dominate. The content is primarily intended to entertain. Some magazines simply close with a full-page cartoon or, as in the case of The Journal of Military Nursing and Research (JMNR), with a large, black-and-white, historical photo related to military nursing. Called "Final Rounds," the photo is supported by a brief, blurb-size caption. Popular Mechanics offers its readers "Last Page," a past and present comparison proving that just when you thought something was a new idea, their editorial archives show that their readers heard about it 20, 50 or 80 years ago. Visual and text excerpts from an early issue are compared with a similar product from today. The two-color format underscores the contrast.