The magazine that can't stand still: MTV To Go

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 1, 1990 by Liz Horton

New York City - Design a magazine for a cutting-edge electronic broadcaster like MTV, and you've got to follow two cardinal rules of the video age: Never stand still, and never be boring. Desktop layout and scanning have made that task a little easier at MTV To Go, a monthly magazine/catalog published by MTV Networks for the MTV Record Club.

"We have to be changing constantly," says publisher Mark Dorsett of Mark II Communications, which contract-publishes MTV To Go. "Most magazines have a style and format they stick to, but we can't find one thing that works and stay with it. We have to try different things all the time"-including designing a new cover logo each month.

Making things look different enough is often a challenge in an industry-and with a budget-that requires frequent use of giveaway shots from record companies. "All publications get the same photos-from Rolling Stone to Spin. How to make ours different?" asks Dorsett. "We could have them sent out and have a collage made for a couple of thousand dollars, but there are cheaper fixes. " That's where photo manipulation with Adobe Photoshop comes in.

For the July issue, for example, MTV Networks wanted the group Depeche Mode on the cover. But the only photo available on short notice (from the group's record company) set the group's members against a deep-blue sky-not visually arresting enough to stand on its own as a cover. But no problem: Art director Chris Howland had the slide scanned in on the magazine's Barneyscan 35 mm scanner and supplied a digital file to illustrator Tom Cushwa, who used Adobe Photoshop to create a swirling background, silhouette the figures in neon and colorize the ground beneath their feet. Once the file had been finalized, it was separated electronically and output directly on film.

More regularly, photos are scanned in at low resolution for position only. Because most of the art requirements in the rock-and-roll business are 35 millimeter, says Dorsett, the Barneyscan slide scanner is a "super medium for getting photos into our magazines-for position when we don't use electronic separations, and for the separations we do with Adobe Photoshop. " Much of the art is separated and stripped in conventionally, with a LaserWriter comp supplied to the pre-press house as a guide.

When using digital separations, output is still a problem, says Dorsett-you're never entirely sure what you're going to get. At press time, Dorsett was struggling with a cover that blew up a tiny image of a watch and electronically collaged it with other elements. Because the original had to be enlarged so much, clarity and resolution suffered, and it didn't "pop" quite the way that it had on the computer screen.

Dorsett sees the computer industry repeating itself in the arena of photomanipulation. Just as calculations that once could be done only on mainframes have made their way down to workstations and then PCs, manipulations that once required a pricey Scitex station can now-nearly-be done on a Mac. The result will be good news for smaller publications and contract publishers. "If you are Time, it doesn't matter," Dorsett explains. "You have your own Scitex machine. But for those who can't afford it...

"As technology cascades its way closer to the PC level, no doubt we'll see lots more photo manipulation," he adds. "We're just beginning on that curve. It's somewhat surprising to me that more publishers aren't doing it."-L. Horton