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How to Write a Magazine Article

Last Updated: October 11, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Gerald Posner . Gerald Posner is an Author & Journalist based in Miami, Florida. With over 35 years of experience, he specializes in investigative journalism, nonfiction books, and editorials. He holds a law degree from UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and a BA in Political Science from the University of California-Berkeley. He’s the author of thirteen books, including several New York Times bestsellers, the winner of the Florida Book Award for General Nonfiction, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. He was also shortlisted for the Best Business Book of 2020 by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 925,259 times.

Magazine articles can be a big boost for seasoned freelance writers or writers who are trying to jump-start their writing careers. In fact, there are no clear qualifications required for writing magazine articles except for a strong writing voice, a passion for research, and the ability to target your article pitches to the right publications. Though it may seem like magazines may be fading in the digital age, national magazines continue to thrive and can pay their writers $1 a word. [1] X Research source To write a good magazine article, you should focus on generating strong article ideas and crafting and revising the article with high attention to detail.

Generating Article Ideas

• Check if the bylines match the names on the masthead. If the names on the bylines do not match the masthead names, this may be an indication that the publication hires freelance writers to contribute to its issues.
• Look for the names and contact information of editors for specific areas. If you’re interested in writing about pop culture, identify the name and contact information of the arts editor. If you’re more interested in writing about current events, look for the name and contact information of the managing editor or the features editor. You should avoid contacting the executive editor or the editor-in-chief as they are too high up the chain and you will likely not interact with them as a freelance writer.
• Note recent topics or issues covered in the publication and the angle or spin on the topics. Does the publication seem to go for more controversial takes on a topic or a more objective approach? Does the publication seem open to experimentation in form and content or are they more traditional?
• Look at the headlines used by the publication and how the articles begin. Note if the headlines are shocking or vague. Check if the articles start with a quote, a statistic, or an anecdote. This will give you a good sense of the writing style that gets published in that particular publication.
• Note the types of sources quoted in the articles. Are they academic or more laymen? Are there many sources quoted, or many different types of sources quoted?
• Pay attention to how writers wrap up their articles in the publication. Do they end on a poignant quote? An interesting image? Or do they have a bold, concluding thought?

• These inspiring conversations do not need to be about global problems or a large issue. Having conversations with your neighbors, your friends, and your peers can allow you to discuss local topics that could then turn into an article idea for a local magazine.

• You should also look through your local newspaper for human interest stories that may have national relevance. You could then take the local story and pitch it to a magazine. You may come across a local story that feels incomplete or full of unanswered questions. This could then act as a story idea for a magazine article.

• You can also set your Google alerts to notify you if keywords on topics of interest appear online. If you have Twitter or Instagram, you can use the hashtag option to search trending topics or issues that you can turn into article ideas.

• For example, rather than write about the psychological problems of social media on teenagers, which has been done many times in many different magazines, perhaps you can focus on a demographic that is not often discussed about social media: seniors and the elderly. This will give you a fresh approach to the topic and ensure your article is not just regurgitating a familiar angle.

Crafting the Article

• Look for content written by experts in the field that relates to your article idea. If you are doing a magazine article on dying bee populations in California, for example, you should try to read texts written by at least two bee experts and/or a beekeeper who studies bee populations in California.
• You should ensure any texts you use as part of your research are credible and accurate. Be wary of websites online that contain lots of advertisements or those that are not affiliated with a professionally recognized association or field of study. Make sure you check if any of the claims made by an author have been disputed by other experts in the field or have been challenged by other experts. Try to present a well-rounded approach to your research so you do not appear biased or slanted in your research.

• You can also do an online search for individuals who may serve as good expert sources based in your area. If you need a legal source, you may ask other freelance writers who they use or ask for a contact at a police station or in the legal system.

• Prepare a list of questions before the interview. Research the source’s background and level of expertise. Be specific in your questions, as interviewees usually like to see that you have done previous research and are aware of the source’s background.
• Ask open-ended questions, avoid yes or no questions. For example, rather than asking, "Did you witness the test trials of this drug?" You can present an open-ended question, "What can you tell me about the test trials of this drug?" Be an active listener and try to minimize the amount of talking you do during the interview. The interview should be about the subject, not about you.
• Make sure you end the interview with the question: “Is there anything I haven’t asked you about this topic that I should know about?” You can also ask for referrals to other sources by asking, “Who disagrees with you on your stance on this issue?” and “Who else should I talk to about this issue?”
• Don’t be afraid to contact the source with follow-up questions as your research continues. As well, if you have any controversial or possibly offensive questions to ask the subject, save them for last.

• The best way to transcribe your interviews is to sit down with headphones plugged into your tape recorder and set aside a few hours to type out the interviews. There is no short and quick way to transcribe unless you decide to use a transcription service, which will charge you a fee for transcribing your interviews.

• Your outline should include the main point or angle of the article in the introduction, followed by supporting points in the article body, and a restatement or further development of your main point or angle in your conclusion section.
• The structure of your article will depend on the type of article you are writing. If you are writing an article on an interview with a noteworthy individual, your outline may be more straightforward and begin with the start of the interview and move to the end of the interview. But if you are writing an investigative report, you may start with the most relevant statements or statements that relate to recent news and work backward to the least relevant or more big picture statements. [10] X Research source
• Keep in mind the word count of the article, as specified by your editor. You should keep the first draft within the word count or just above the word count so you do not lose track of your main point. Most editors will be clear about the required word count of the article and will expect you not to go over the word count, for example, 500 words for smaller articles and 2,000-3,000 words for a feature article. Most magazines prefer short and sweet over long and overly detailed, with a maximum of 12 pages, including graphics and images. [11] X Research source
• You should also decide if you are going to include images or graphics in the article and where these graphics are going to come from. You may contribute your own photography or the publication may provide a photographer. If you are using graphics, you may need to have a graphic designer re create existing graphics or get permission to use the existing graphics.

• Use an interesting or surprising example: This could be a personal experience that relates to the article topic or a key moment in an interview with a source that relates to the article topic. For example, you may start an article on beekeeping in California by using a discussion you had with a source: "Darryl Bernhardt never thought he would end up becoming the foremost expert on beekeeping in California."
• Try a provocative quotation: This could be from a source from your research that raises interesting questions or introduces your angle on the topic. For example, you may quote a source who has a surprising stance on bee populations: "'Bees are more confused than ever,' Darryl Bernhart, the foremost expert in bees in California, tells me."
• Use a vivid anecdote: An anecdote is a short story that carries moral or symbolic weight. Think of an anecdote that might be a poetic or powerful way to open your article. For example, you may relate a short story about coming across abandoned bee hives in California with one of your sources, an expert in bee populations in California.
• Come up with a thought provoking question: Think of a question that will get your reader thinking and engaged in your topic, or that may surprise them. For example, for an article on beekeeping you may start with the question: "What if all the bees in California disappeared one day?"

• You want to avoid leaning too much on quotations to write the article for you. A good rule of thumb is to expand on a quotation once you use it and only use quotations when they feel necessary and impactful. The quotations should support the main angle of your article and back up any claims being made in the article.

• You may want to lean on a strong quote from a source that feels like it points to future developments relating to the topic or the ongoing nature of the topic. Ending the article on a quote may also give the article more credibility, as you are allowing your sources to provide context for the reader.

Revising the Article

• Having a conversation about the article with your editor can offer you a set of professional eyes who can make sure the article fits within the writing style of the publication and reaches its best possible draft. You should be open to editor feedback and work with your editor to improve the draft of the article.

• You should also get a copy of the publication’s style sheet or contributors guidelines and make sure the article follows these rules and guidelines. Your article should adhere to these guidelines to ensure it is ready for publication by your deadline.

• Most publications accept electronic submissions of articles. Talk with your editor to determine the best way to submit the revised article.

Sample Articles

Expert Q&A

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Expert Interview

Thanks for reading our article! If you'd like to learn more about writing an article, check out our in-depth interview with Gerald Posner .

• ↑ http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/grammar-rules-and-tips/tips-on-writing-a-good-feature-for-magazines.html
• ↑ https://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/20-ways-to-generate-article-ideas-in-20-minutes-or-less
• ↑ http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/jun03/eight-tips-for-getting-published-in-magazines-6036
• ↑ http://www.thepenmagazine.net/20-steps-to-write-a-good-article/
• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R5f2VV58pw
• ↑ https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-nonfiction/how-many-different-kinds-of-articles-are-there
• ↑ http://libguides.unf.edu/c.php?g=177086&p=1163719

About This Article

To write a magazine article, start by researching your topic and interviewing experts in the field. Next, create an outline of the main points you want to cover so you don’t go off topic. Then, start the article with a hook that will grab the reader’s attention and keep them reading. As you write, incorporate quotes from your research, but be careful to stick to your editor’s word count, such as 500 words for a small article or 2,000 words for a feature. Finally, conclude with a statement that expands on your topic, but leaves the reader wanting to learn more. For tips on how to smoothly navigate the revision process with an editor, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Magazine Article Structure: How to Master the Layout

Understanding the intricacies of a magazine article’s structure is crucial for writers and readers. A well-structured magazine article ensures clarity and engagement and enhances the reader’s comprehension and retention of the content. From captivating leads to compelling conclusions, every element plays a pivotal role.

Table of Contents

Visual elements, sidebars, and subheadings are also woven to provide depth and context. With the diverse formats available, it’s essential to discern which structure best fits the content and audience. Mastery of these structural elements promises impactful and memorable magazine articles.

Introduction to Magazine Article Structures

When picking up a magazine, readers must recognize the careful planning and structure of crafting each piece. However, the backbone of a magazine article is its structure, an invisible force guiding the narrative and ensuring clarity and engagement.

Why Structure Matters

Understanding the structure of a magazine article is beneficial for writers and readers. Just as architects need blueprints and chefs require recipes, writers rely on structure to build a coherent and impactful piece. The structure offers a systematic approach, ensuring that the writer’s message is conveyed precisely and that the reader’s journey is smooth and intuitive.

For readers, a well-structured article provides a clear path to comprehension. It ensures that the introduction grabs their attention, the main content delivers valuable information, and the conclusion ties everything together, leaving them with a clear takeaway or thought.

Components of a Magazine Article

At a high level, a magazine article consists of:

The Lead: This is the hook, the captivating start that grabs the reader’s attention.

The Body: This section delves into the heart of the topic, whether it’s an in-depth investigation, a profile, or a feature on a particular subject.

The Conclusion: It wraps up the article, providing closure or sometimes leaving the reader with something provocative to think about.

However, this is a simplification. Depending on the type of magazine article, the structure can vary, with elements such as sidebars, pull quotes, and visual aids adding depth and richness to the content.

Gains for the Reader

When readers familiarize themselves with these structures, they begin to read with a more informed perspective. They can anticipate the flow of the content, knowing where the author might present crucial facts, opposing viewpoints, or anecdotal evidence. This knowledge enriches the reading experience, allowing readers to extract more value from the article.

Moreover, an awareness of structure can heighten readers’ critical thinking skills. By understanding how an article is constructed, readers can more effectively assess the strength of an argument, the research’s depth, or the narrative’s bias.

A Mutual Understanding

In essence, the structure of a magazine article serves as a bridge between the writer’s intent and the reader’s understanding. For writers, it’s a tool to convey their message effectively. For readers, it’s a lens through which they can better interpret and engage with the content. A mutual appreciation of this structure ensures that the dance between writer and reader is harmonious, with each step or sentence leading seamlessly to the next.

The Anatomy of a Lead for a Magazine Article

In any compelling narrative, the beginning often sets the stage for what’s to come. For magazine articles, this critical beginning is known as the “lead.” It’s the gateway into the story, providing a glimpse of the content that awaits. The lead’s role is paramount: it either entices the reader to venture further into the article or fails to capture their attention, causing them to move on.

A magazine article example can significantly illuminate the power of a strong lead. Consider two articles on the same topic: while one might begin with a shocking statistic, the other could open with a personal anecdote. Both are valid approaches, but their impact on the reader can vary significantly depending on their execution and the target audience.

Different Types of Leads and Their Purposes

Anecdotal Lead: This type begins with a short story or personal account related to the main topic. It aims to humanize the subject and forge an emotional connection with the reader. For instance, a magazine article example about climate change might start with a villager’s firsthand account of witnessing glacier melt.

Question Lead: This lead engages the reader’s curiosity by posing a thought-provoking question. “What if you knew the exact day you’d die?” could be an intriguing lead for an article about genetic predictions.

Statistic Lead: This lead utilizes complex data or surprising statistics to underscore the article’s significance. An article discussing smartphone addiction might start with, “75% of millennials check their phones within 5 minutes of waking up.”

Descriptive Lead: Painting a vivid picture, this lead immerses the reader in a setting, scene, or situation. For a magazine article example about a bustling city market, the lead might dive into the cacophony of sellers, fragrances, and colors.

Quotation Lead: Beginning with a relevant quote, this lead lends authority or contrasts viewpoints. An article on freedom might open with a quote from Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King Jr.

Contrast Lead: This lead highlights the disparity by juxtaposing two opposing ideas or scenarios. An article about the digital divide might start by comparing a day in the life of two students, one with and one without internet access.

Mastering the Lead: A Foundation for Success

Regardless of the type, a lead’s primary function remains consistent: to captivate and guide the reader into the article’s main body. It’s the reader’s first impression; as the old adage goes, first impressions matter. Whether drawing from a magazine article example or crafting an original piece, understanding the anatomy of a lead is crucial for anyone aiming to engage and inform their audience effectively.

Main Body Formats: From Narratives to How-Tos

The main body of a magazine article is where the meat of the content lies. It’s the detailed exploration, the unfolding narrative, the in-depth discussion. Depending on the content and purpose, the magazine article format for the main body can vary widely. From weaving engaging narratives to instructive how-tos, the format chosen significantly influences the reader’s experience and comprehension.

Narrative Format

Application: Used primarily for personal essays, long-form journalism, and features.

Description: This format relies on storytelling techniques, often flowing like a novel or a short story. It might follow a chronological order or use flashbacks, with character development, plot, and a climax.

Real-life Example: An article detailing a mountaineer’s ascent of Mount Everest would use the narrative format. It would chronicle the journey from the base camp and capture the challenges, personal emotions, and eventual triumph or setback.

Expository Format

Application: Common for articles that aim to inform or explain without the writer’s personal opinion.

Description: This format provides a straightforward, fact-based explanation of a topic. It relies heavily on research, expert quotes, and data.

Real-life Example: An article exploring the reasons behind bee population decline, detailing the role of pesticides, climate change, and habitat loss, would adopt an expository magazine article format.

How-to or Instructional Format

Application: Used for articles that guide the reader through a process or instructions.

Description: This format breaks down a task into digestible steps, often supplemented with tips, illustrations, or cautionary notes. It’s direct and often written in the second person, addressing the reader directly.

Real-life Example: An article teaching readers how to create a rooftop garden, complete with steps, necessary tools, and best plants for rooftop environments, would utilize this format.

Q&A Format

Application: Typical for interviews or articles that revolve around experts’ insights.

Description: Presented as a series of questions followed by answers. This magazine article format is straightforward but engaging if the questions are insightful and the solutions provide depth.

Real-life Example: An interview with a renowned climate scientist, where they answer queries about global warming, its impact, and mitigation measures, would adopt a Q&A structure.

Listicle Format

Application: Popular in modern digital magazines or platforms catering to readers looking for quick, engaging reads.

Description: As the name suggests, it presents information in a list form, often numbered or bulleted.

Real-life Example: “10 Revolutionary Women Writers of the 21st Century” would be a listicle briefly describing each writer and their contributions.

Embracing Versatility

The main body’s structure of a magazine article is as varied as the topics they cover. By understanding each magazine article format and its applications, writers can ensure their content is engaging and compelling, catering to their readers’ specific needs and preferences.

Using Sidebars for Additional Insight

In magazine layouts, sidebars often stand out as strategic design elements, adding layers of context, detail, or intrigue to the main content. A well-designed sidebar doesn’t just supplement the article but elevates it, providing readers with enriched understanding and engagement.

The Role of Sidebars in Magazine Article Design

The primary function of a sidebar in a magazine article design is to offer supplemental information related to the main content. Instead of disrupting the flow of the article with tangential or in-depth details, sidebars house this additional data, ensuring the main narrative remains crisp and focused. Sidebars can:

Highlight Key Points: Summarizing essential information or presenting “at a glance” insights.

Delve Deeper: Offering a more in-depth exploration of a specific point mentioned in the article.

Provide Context: Sharing background information or historical data relevant to the topic.

Showcase Visuals: Including charts, graphs, or images that support the article’s content.

Share Testimonials or Quotes: Giving voice to experts or those affected by the topic.

Designing Effective Sidebars

The magazine article design for sidebars varies, but there are a few best practices to ensure they serve their purpose effectively:

Contrast with Main Content: Different fonts, colors, or backgrounds differentiate the sidebar from the primary content.

Keep It Concise: Sidebars should be brief, offering bite-sized information. Overloading a sidebar can overwhelm readers and detract from its purpose.

Strategic Placement: Position the sidebar close to the relevant content, ensuring readers naturally gravitate towards it as they progress through the article.

Use Clear Headings: If the sidebar contains different types of information, use subheadings to guide the reader.

Enhancing Reader Engagement and Understanding

Including sidebars in a magazine, article design does more than beautify a page or fill space; it significantly amplifies reader comprehension and interaction. By offering additional insights without breaking the primary narrative’s flow, sidebars cater to readers who crave a deeper dive into specific points.

For instance, in an article about the benefits of organic farming, a sidebar could provide statistics on increased organic produce sales over the years. This immediate access to supplemental data can strengthen the article’s argument and give readers a holistic understanding.

Moreover, for readers skimming the article, sidebars can act as focal points, drawing their attention to critical facts or insights that might otherwise be buried in the main content.

The Sidebar’s Pivotal Role

Sidebars play a pivotal role in the intricate dance of magazine article design. They enhance aesthetics and enrich content, providing readers with a multi-dimensional exploration of topics. When designed with purpose and precision, sidebars can transform a good article into a great one.

The Power of Effective Headings and Subheadings

The tapestry of a magazine article is not just its intricate and detailed content but also its magazine article frame—constructed using headings and subheadings. While these elements might seem simple, they wield a transformative power in guiding and enhancing the reader’s journey and comprehension.

Significance in the Magazine Article Frame

Within the complex structure of a magazine piece, headings and subheadings function as navigational beacons. Just as a map uses landmarks to help travelers find their way, the magazine article frame uses these elements to direct readers through its content.

Setting the Tone: The main heading is the reader’s first interaction with the content. A well-crafted header grabs attention and sets expectations, highlighting the article’s tone and focus.

Segmentation: Particularly in lengthy articles, subheadings break the text into digestible sections. This segmentation aids readers in understanding the article’s flow and the progression of ideas.

Facilitating Skimming: Only some readers dive deep into the content in today’s fast-paced world. Many skim to gather the gist. Headings and subheadings allow these readers to quickly pinpoint areas of interest and understand the main takeaways.

Breaking Down Information Effectively

An article without clear divisions can appear daunting, much like a long, winding road without signposts. Headings and subheadings work to classify information, making it accessible and easily digestible.

Highlighting Key Points: Through concise and impactful subheadings, writers can emphasize the core ideas of each section, ensuring readers grasp the essential messages even if they don’t delve into every paragraph.

Creating a Logical Flow: Sequential and thoughtfully crafted headings guide readers through a logical journey, from introducing a topic to providing evidence, showcasing examples, and concluding.

Aiding Memory Retention: By compartmentalizing information, headings and subheadings make it easier for readers to recall details. The human brain often remembers structured information better than continuous, undivided content.

Crafting Effective Headings in the Magazine Article Frame

While the utility of headings and subheadings is evident, their efficacy relies on their construction. An impactful header should:

• Be concise yet descriptive.
• Engage the reader’s curiosity.
• Reflect the content it precedes.
• Be consistent in style throughout the article, ensuring a cohesive magazine article frame.

The Unsung Pillars

While imagery, quotes, and narrative arcs often steal the limelight in magazine articles, the humble headings and subheadings remain the unsung pillars of the magazine article frame. They structure and shape the content, ensuring the message is noticed in the maze of words. As integral parts of the magazine article frame, they are pivotal in enhancing readability, understanding, and engagement.

Integrating Visual Elements: Photos, Illustrations, and Infographics

The intricate blend of words in a magazine article forms a tapestry of information, weaving narratives and presenting insights. However, visuals such as photos, illustrations, and infographics play a quintessential role in any effective magazine article template. They are not mere decorations but powerful storytelling tools that complement and amplify the textual content.

The Role of Visuals in a Magazine Article Template

Instant Engagement: A picture is worth a thousand words. In the bustling world of content consumption, visuals can instantly grab readers’ attention, anchoring them to the article. Before delving into the textual content, an evocative image or a captivating infographic can intrigue readers, setting the tone for what’s to come.

Complementing the Text: A magazine article template’s relationship between text and visuals is symbiotic. While words convey detailed information, visuals support, emphasize, and enhance those details. For instance, an article on wildlife conservation becomes infinitely more impactful when accompanied by a striking image of an endangered species in its natural habitat.

Breaking Monotony: Long-form articles can appear daunting and monolithic. Integrating visuals breaks the textual monotony, offering readers a refreshing change of pace and facilitating easier content digestion.

Facilitating Understanding: Complex topics or data-heavy discussions can be challenging to convey solely through words. Here, infographics shine. They simplify intricate data, presenting it in a digestible, visually appealing manner. A magazine article template incorporating infographics can transform a dense topic into an engaging, easily understandable narrative.

Enhancing the Magazine Article Template with Varied Visuals

Photos: Authentic, high-resolution images can evoke emotions, set contexts, or provide real-life examples. They add a layer of realism to the article, allowing readers to visualize described scenarios or subjects.

Illustrations: These offer a more flexible and creative avenue than photos. Images can be tailored to match the article’s tone, whether whimsical, serious, or abstract. They add a unique flair to the magazine article template, making it stand out.

Infographics: As visual representations of information, infographics distill complex data or concepts into easily graspable visuals. They’re especially effective in articles that deal with statistics, processes, or timelines.

The Visual-Textual Symphony

The art of crafting an influential magazine article lies in the harmonious integration of text and visuals. In a well-designed magazine article template, each visual element is strategically positioned to reinforce, complement, and elevate the textual content. Through this blend, articles achieve a dynamic, multifaceted form of storytelling, ensuring readers understand and experience the content.

The Art of Crafting a Memorable Conclusion for a Magazine Article

In magazine articles, every section has a unique role, from the gripping leads to the compelling body. But, within the intricacies of a magazine article layout, the conclusion stands out as the final note. This swan song leaves a resonant echo in the reader’s mind. Much like the finishing stroke in a painting, it completes the picture, offering readers clarity, insights, and a sense of fulfillment.

The Quintessential Role of a Conclusion in the Magazine Article Layout

Every component of a magazine article layout has a purpose, and the conclusion is no exception. It is the culmination of the reader’s journey, a destination that should leave them informed, contemplative, and spurred into action.

Leaving a Lasting Impression: The ending of an article often defines its remembrance. While readers may skim sections of the main body or gloss over details, the conclusion offers a summarized essence, reinforcing the core message. A memorable conclusion ensures the reader leaves with a clear takeaway, deepening the article’s purpose in their memory.

Providing a Sense of Completion: The conclusion acts as the seal, closing the narrative. In a well-structured magazine article layout, the conclusion ensures all threads spun in the narrative converge, offering readers a rounded perspective. This closure prevents readers from feeling adrift, ensuring they leave with a sense of satisfaction.

Inspiring Action and Reflection: Beyond mere summarization, a robust conclusion nudges readers towards introspection or tangible action. Whether challenging them with a thought-provoking question, presenting a call to action, or urging them to reconsider preconceived notions, the conclusion’s potential to instigate change is immense.

Tailoring the Conclusion to the Magazine Article Layout

While the significance of a conclusion is undeniable, its effectiveness is contingent on how it’s integrated into the overall magazine article layout.

• Consistency with the Theme: The conclusion should harmonize with the article’s overarching theme, ensuring a fluid transition from the main body.
• Avoid Introducing New Elements: A conclusion is a synthesis, not a place for fresh revelations. New information can jolt the reader, detracting from the sense of closure.
• Engage Emotionally: Evoking emotions, whether hope, concern, or inspiration, amplifies the lasting power of the conclusion. An emotional connection ensures readers carry the article’s essence with them.

The Lasting Legacy of Conclusions

In the multifaceted design of a magazine article layout, the conclusion emerges as the final brushstroke, the defining silhouette against the backdrop. Its power lies in its subtlety, its ability to encapsulate the narrative’s spirit, and its potential to leave a lingering trace in the mindscape of readers. Crafting this section with intention and finesse ensures that an article doesn’t just end but resonates, echoing its core message long after the last word is read.

Common Magazine Article Types and Their Unique Structures

The world of magazine article writing is rich and varied, offering a plethora of formats that cater to different content needs and audience preferences. Each type of article possesses a distinct structure crafted to enhance its primary objective. Let’s delve into some common magazine article types and unpack their unique structural nuances, offering illustrative examples for better understanding.

Feature Articles

Structure: This is the crown jewel of magazine article writing, often diving deep into a topic, person, event, or trend. Feature articles typically start with a strong lead, setting the tone and drawing readers in. They then progress through a detailed body with subheadings, anecdotes, interviews, and personal reflections. The conclusion often circles back to the lead, offering closure.

Example: A feature article on the impact of climate change on polar bears might begin with a heart-wrenching account of a lone bear’s struggle, delve into scientific data, expert opinions, and local stories, before ending with a broader reflection on nature’s fragile balance.

Structure: Profiles focus on individuals, providing an in-depth look at their life, achievements, personality, and more. After a compelling introduction highlighting the individual’s significance, the body elaborates on their background, significant milestones, challenges, and personal anecdotes. The conclusion often offers insights into their future plans or broader impact.

Example: In magazine article writing, a profile on a renowned author might begin by discussing a pivotal moment in their latest book, dive into their writing journey, personal life, and literary achievements, and conclude with their legacy in the literary world.

News Stories

Structure: Unlike newspapers, magazine news stories offer more depth. They commence with a headline and lead that outlines the main event or update. The body provides detailed information, background context, related events, and expert opinions. It concludes with implications or future predictions.

Example: A news story about a technological breakthrough in renewable energy sources might start with the discovery’s announcement, explain the technology, its potential benefits and challenges, and conclude with its potential global impact.

How-to Articles

Structure: These are instructional pieces. They start with an introduction explaining the importance of the task. The main body follows a step-by-step format, often accompanied by subheadings, bullet points, and images for clarity. The conclusion offers additional tips or emphasizes the benefits of completing the task.

Example: An article on “How to Grow Organic Tomatoes” would detail the process, from selecting seeds to harvesting, guiding readers through each phase with clear instructions and visual aids.

Structure: Reviews assess products, books, films, etc. They begin with an introduction that provides context. The body delves into features, pros, cons, and personal experiences. The conclusion offers a verdict or recommendation.

Example: A movie review might introduce the film’s context, discuss its plot, characters, direction, and cinematography strengths and weaknesses, and end with a recommendation.

In Summation

The diversity in magazine article writing ensures writers can approach subjects from various angles, presenting engaging and apt content. By understanding the unique structures associated with each type, writers can craft pieces that resonate, inform, and captivate their readers.

What are feature articles?

Feature articles are comprehensive pieces that delve deep into a topic, person, event, or trend. They combine detailed analysis, anecdotes, interviews, and personal reflections to give readers an in-depth understanding.

Are magazine news stories similar to newspaper articles?

While both report on current events, magazine news stories offer more depth and context than their newspaper counterparts. They often include background information, related events, and expert insights.

What is the primary objective of a how-to article?

How-to articles are instructional pieces guiding readers through a process or task step-by-step . They are structured for clarity, often using subheadings, bullet points, and visuals to ensure understanding.

How do reviews offer a verdict or recommendation?

Reviews assess products or media by discussing their features, strengths, and weaknesses. Based on this assessment and the writer’s personal experience, a conclusion provides a verdict or recommendation to readers.

Can a magazine article combine multiple formats?

While each type has a distinct structure, skilled magazine article writing can blend elements from various formats to create a unique, engaging piece tailored to the topic and audience.

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11 Most Popular Types of Articles to Write for Magazines

• September 4, 2023
• 31 Comments

Want to write for magazines? This list includes feature stories, roundups, profiles, research shorts, human interest, how-to articles and more. You’ll be surprised by how many types of online and print magazine articles you can write! Whether you’re an aspiring freelance writer or an established author you’ll find lots of ideas in this list.

Learning about the different types of magazine articles is one thing. More important is finding courage to write boldly and the strength to keep pitching ideas to editors! May you get published again and again. And, may you prepare yourself to do the work now — before the day ends and you lose your momentum.

The most important thing to remember when you’re looking for different types of magazine articles to write is your audience. Learn how to slant your writing to the target audience, publisher, and editor of the magazine or publication. Books like  Writer’s Market: The Most Trusted Guide to Getting Published – are essential to your success. They reveal details and information for freelance writers that you won’t find online.

“You can’t sit in a rocking chair with a lily in your hand and wait for the Mood,” writes author Faith Baldwin in The Writer’s Handbook . “You have to work. You have to work hard and unremittingly, and sacrifice a great deal; and when you fall at, or fail to clear, an obstacle (usually an editor), you have to pick yourself up and go on.”

A crucial part of earning money as a freelance writer is knowing what to work hard on. Learning about the different types of magazine articles is an excellent way to start a freelance writing career, or even boost a faltering author’s yearly income. If you’re serious about selling your writing and making money writing, you need to be constantly learning about writing, getting published, and working with editors.

“Two types of articles continue to dominate the changing field of magazine publishing,” writes Nancy Hamilton in Magazine Writing: A Step-by-Step Guide to Success . “The personality profile and the how-to story with its self-help variant. Together, they account for an estimated 72% of magazine feature material.”

11 Different Types of Magazine Articles

I’ve been published in several different magazines (such as  Reader’s Digest, Chatelaine, Women’s Health  and More ) and have written each one of these different types of magazine articles…except for the exposé. My favorite is writing research shorts for magazines – but they are just that ( short ) and thus don’t pay much.

As you read through the following types of articles, think about which one you most like to read. This will help you decide what type of article to research and write. The best writing comes from writers who are enjoying their work and passionate about their topic, so don’t hesitate to choose the project that lights your fire.

1. “How To” Articles

“Easily the most popular and the shortest and easiest to write, the how-to article with its self-help variant gives instructions for how to do or be something or how to do it better,” writes Hamilton in Magazine Writing .

“How to” articles:

• Make a rousing promise of success
• Describe what you need in easy to follow instructions
• Give step-by-step directions (sometimes with subtitles)
• Include shortcomings or warnings
• Tell how to locate supplies
• Give proofs and promises
• Make referrals to other sources

Examples of “how to” articles are: “How to Write Magazine Articles That Editors Love to Publish” or “How Freelance Writers Earn a $100,000 Every Year” or How to Think Like a Magazine Editor – 8 Tips for Writers . “How to” articles are my favorite type of feature articles; they simply tell readers how to do something.

Tip for freelance writers: Some magazine or newspaper editors require writers to submit their own photos for how-to articles. Before you accept an assignment from an editor, ask what their photo policy is.

2. Profile and Interview Articles

This popular type of article describes a contemporary or historical person – but a profile doesn’t have to be about a human being! Animals, communities, nations, states, provinces, companies, associations, churches can all be profiled (but not necessarily interviewed).

Personality profiles and interview articles:

• Have different definitions. In a personality profile, you use additional sources, such as friends, family, kids, neighbors, colleagues. In an interview, you talk to the source him or herself – preferably in person.
• Can have a theme or focus.
• Can be presented as a “Q & A” or a written article.
• Require strong interviewing and perception skills for the “best” information

Examples of profiles or interview articles are: “The Real Natalie Goldberg and Her Real Writing Career” or “Anne Lamott Shares Her Secrets for Writing Different Types of Magazine Articles.” Profiles and interview are two different types of magazine articles to write.

About this type of magazine article Hamilton says, “The most successful personality profile allows the reader to experience the story directly without having to filter that experience through the ‘I’ of an unknown writer. Despite this common-sense perspective, many magazines today prefer the ‘I’ approach for personality profiles.” Why? Because most editors want to encourage a personal relationship between the magazine and the reader by addressing them personally.

3. Informative or Service Articles

Informative articles are also know as “survey articles.” They often offer information about a specific field, such as sports medicine, health writing, ocean currents, politics, etc. Service articles are similar, but often used as shorter fillers. Service articles offer a few pieces of good advice or tips, but aren’t usually long or involved.

Informative or service articles:

• Focus on one unique aspect, or the “handle”
• Describe what-to, how-to, when-to, why-to, etc.
• Answer the journalist’s who, what, when, where, why, and how questions
• Can end with a “how-to” piece as a sidebar

Examples of this type of magazine article include: “How to Write Query Letters for Magazines” or “ 10 Magazine Writing Tips From a Reader’s Digest Editor ” or “11 Types of Magazine Articles to Write for Magazines.”

The informative or service article is similar to the how-to type of magazine article. I’d love to write a service article for the SPCA, but I’m too busy with my blogs to pitch article ideas to editors.

4. The Alarmer-Exposé

“A Reader’s Digest staple, the alarmer-exposé is designed to alert and move the reader to action,” writes Hamilton in Magazine Writing . “Well-researched and heavy with documentation, this type of magazine article takes a stance and adopts a particular point of view on a timely and often controversial issue. Its purpose is to expose what’s wrong here.”

• Shocks or surprises readers
• Includes statistics, quotes, anecdotes
• Can range from how extension cords can kill to new info on Watergate

“This article is best written by an established writer who is skilled in reporting an issue and building a case without flagrant – and apparent – bias,” says Hamilton.

Examples of an exposé magazine article are: “Stephen King’s Ghostwriter Reveals Secret Writing Career” or “95% of Natalie Goldberg’s Writing is From a Ghostwriter!” Those aren’t actual feature articles that were written by freelance writers – they’re just examples of the different types of magazine articles.

5. Human Interest Magazine Articles:

• Usually start with an anecdote
• Are often chronologically organized

Examples of human interest magazine articles are: “Anne Lamott Shares Her Secrets to Success as a Single Mother and Bestselling Author” or “Mark Twain’s Great-Granddaughter Discovers a Brand New Type of Magazine Article.” This type of feature article interests the majority of readers of a specific, niched magazine.

People  is currently one of the most popular magazines on the market, and it specializes in this type of article. If you find someone who has done or experienced something extraordinary – and if your writing skills are pretty good – you might consider sending a query letter to the editors at People .

6. Essay, Narrative, or Opinion Articles

This is my least favorite type of magazine article or blog post to write! I’m not a big writer of personal stories (nor do I like to read autobiographies, biographies, or personal blogs). I’d much rather encourage readers by sharing information – such as these 11 different types of articles to write magazines 🙂

Essay, narrative, or opinion articles:

• Usually revolve around an important or timely subject (if they’re to be published in a newspaper or “serious” magazine)
• Are harder to sell if you’re an unknown or unpublished writer
• Can be found on blogs all over the internet

Here’s some great writing advice from Hamilton: “The narrative uses fiction technique to recreate the tension, the setting, the emotion – the drama – of something that actually happened. The article must have implications and ramifications that are meaningful to a reader. It must be relevant to what’s going on today – one event that relates to the larger whole.”

Examples of this type of magazine article are: “What I Think of Natalie Goldberg’s Decision to Retire From Her Writing Career” or “Anne Lamott’s Most Famous Writing Mistakes.”

If you feel overwhelmed with all these types of magazine articles, read How to Write When You Have No Ideas .

7. Humor or Satire Articles

Humor or satire articles are really hard to write. I just read today – in the University of Alberta’s Trail  magazine – that it takes the Simpsons’ writers and staff SIX MONTHS to write and produce a single episode! That’s because humor writing seems easy and fast, but it’s actually the hardest type of writing to learn…not to mention master.

Humor or satire articles:

• Usually have a specific audience, such as the readers of The Onion
• Are usually written on spec (that is, you submit the whole article before the editors or publishers will accept it for publication in the magazine)

Examples of humor or satire articles might include:  “Ode to Stephen King’s Typewriter” or “What Margaret Laurence Ate the Day She Started Writing Articles for Magazines.”

8. Historical Articles

What can I say? A historical article describes a moment in time. Or an epoch. Or an era. Or an eon.

Historical articles:

• Reveal events of interest to millions (which means at least one of my examples wouldn’t work as this type of article)
• Focus on a single aspect of the subject
• Are organized chronologically
• Tell readers something new
• Go beyond history to make a current connection

Examples of this type of magazine article include: “The Typewriter Mark Twain First Used” or “How Freelance Writers Submitted Articles Before Typewriters Were Invented” or “How the Use of the Word ‘Tweet’ Evolved From 2005 to Now.”

9. Inspirational Magazine Articles

• Describe how to feel good or how to do good things
• Can describe how to feel good about yourself – this type of article can work for anyone from writers to plumbers to pilots
• Offer a moral message
• Focus on the inspirational point

Examples of different types of inspirational articles for magazines are: “How You Can Change the World With Your Writing Career” or “13 Tips to Improve Your Writing Confidence.”

This is probably my second most favorite type of feature article to write. It’s definitely the post I write most often on my Blossom blogs!

10. Round-Up Magazine Articles

• Gather a collection from many sources
• Focus on one theme
• Offer quotations, opinions, statistics, research studies, anecdotes, recipes, etc.

The Round-Up was one of my favorite types of magazine articles to write when I was freelancing. Examples of round up articles are: “ 12 Fiction Writing Tips From Authors and Editors ” or “1,001 Types of Articles to Write for Magazines.” I enjoy writing round-ups because I can squeeze in lots of information in 1,000 words.

11. Research Shorts

• Describe current scientific information
• Are usually less than 250 words long
• Are often written on spec (at least by me)
• Are fast, effective ways to earn money as a freelance writer – if you can find the right markets

Research Shorts for the “Front of the Book” are those little blurbs of scientific research you see at the beginning of many magazines.   Examples of these types of articles for magazines include: “How Alliteration Affects Your Memory” or “What Anne Lamott’s Writing Does to Your Brain Waves.”

Shorts aren’t really a type of magazine article, but they’re a great way to get your foot in the door and learn what articles editors will pay to publish .

Types of Magazine Articles You Can Write

In 11 Most Popular Articles to Write for Magazines | Tips for Freelance Writers I share different types of articles to write, to help you get published in the right magazine.

My list includes feature length stories, roundups, personality profiles, research shorts, human interest pieces, and “how to” articles. I also included examples of magazines that publish each type of article. Whether you’re an aspiring freelance writer or an established author you’ll find lots of ideas in this list.

Here’s a tip from bestselling author Natalie Goldberg about being a successful writer: “I hear people say they’re going to write. I ask, when? They give me vague statements,” she writes in  Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer’s Craft . “Indefinite plans get dubious results.”

What are your writing goals, and how will you achieve them? Have you made a specific plan? After you read through these different types of articles to write for magazines, create goals for yourself.

Writer’s Digest Magazine

Writer’s Digest Magazine  is my favorite periodical about writing; a subscription is both motivating and informative. The more you learn about freelance writing – including the business of writing – the easier it’ll be to remember the different types of magazine articles you can write for magazines.

If you want to be a freelance writer, you have to do more than just learn about the different types of magazine articles to write for magazines. You need to research professional writing organizations, learn how to write query letters for editors, and where to pitch your ideas.

If you have any thoughts or questions about writing these types of feature articles for magazines and other publications, feel free to share below.

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31 thoughts on “11 Most Popular Types of Articles to Write for Magazines”

What if you wrote a catchier title? I don’t want to tell you how to run your Successful Writers blog, but suppose you added something to possibly grab folk’s attention? I mean 11 Popular Magazine Articles That Editors Love to Publish is a little vanilla. You ought to peek at Yahoo’s home page and see how they create post titles to get viewers to click. You might try adding a video or a related pic or two to get readers interested about everything’ve got to say. Just my opinion, it could make your Successful Writers blog a little livelier.

Thank you , Laurie! I am just starting my online magazine UpMixed in a month so these tips are going to help me.

“By the time I was fourteen the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and went on writing.” ~ Stephen King

Most writers starts their publishing journey the wrong way. They want to start big. They want a book contract, a speaking tour, and all-around international fame and notoriety. But that’s not how this thing works. we need to start small. This is a blessing in disguise, actually, as you are probably not that good when you are just beginning. You need time to practice writing articles for magazines that are of publishable quality.

Dear Newbie Magazine Writer,

Here’s an article that will give you a few pointers:

How to Write a Query Letter and Get Your Article Published https://www.theadventurouswriter.com/blogwriting/how-to-write-query-letters-for-magazine-articles/

Let me know what happens after you pitch your query to the magazine editor! It sounds like a winner 🙂

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Writer's Digest Guide to Magazine Article Writing: A Practical Guide to Selling Your Pitches, Crafting Strong Articles, & Earning More Bylines Paperback – Illustrated, July 17, 2018

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Editorial Reviews

About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., writer's digest guide to magazine article writing, a practical guide to selling your pitches, crafting strong articles, & earning more bylines, f+w media, inc..

WHY WRITE FOR MAGAZINES?

Why write for magazines? I guess the bigger question is, why not? There are thousands of print and digital magazines, and they all have one thing in common. They need writers. And the fact that these publications continue to put out new issues monthly, quarterly, and some weekly, means they need a continuous stream of quality content from good writers.

In this age of digital media, there is a misconception that magazines, like newspapers, are dying a slow death, especially with young readers. A recent report from The Association of Magazine Media dispels this myth and illustrates the growth and vibrancy of this market. Currently there are more than seven thousand print magazines in the United States. Ninety-one percent of U.S. adults read print magazines with the biggest readership in the thirty-five and under crowd. The net audience for both print and digital editions has grown to more than 215 million and continues to grow.

EDITORS NEED WRITERS

This is good news! With the popularity of magazines, more content is going to be needed from writers who understand the industry. Editors look for writers who know how to write an effective query, who take the time to research their publication, who can expand on a good idea, who are capable of writing a great piece, and who respect word count and deadlines. Editors seek writers who will make their jobs easier by being professional and easy to work with. Of the more than seven thousand print magazines in the United States, many are niche and trade publications you may not have heard of before. These magazines focus on a narrowly defined topic or specialty. You won't find these at Barnes & Noble or at your local newsstand. But there are magazines on every topic you can imagine. The Concrete Producer, Bee Culture, The American Window Cleaner Magazine, Balloons and Parties Magazine, Military Vehicles Magazine, Sky & Telescope, and Sand Sports Magazine are just a few of these unique publications. Unlike the well-known magazines you see in the grocery store, like Family Circle or Prevention, these smaller publications aren't inundated with freelance writers knocking down the door. This makes them more open to working with new writers, especially ones who take the time to understand their readership and their magazine. If you have a hobby or special interest, chances are there are magazines published on the topic, and you're ideally suited to write for them.

"Niches are great because they're much less competitive than larger markets," says Megan Hill, freelance writer from Seattle. "You can more easily differentiate yourself among the competition and be a big fish in a small pond."

QUICK TURNAROUND

If you are someone who likes short-term projects and quick turn-arounds, then you will enjoy this line of work. Unlike publishing a book, which can take years, writing for magazines is a shorter process from start to finish. From writing the initial query to seeing your article in print can take as little as a few months. With digital magazines, this can be even shorter. If you like to get things done and move on to the next project, this is appealing. Plus you don't have to worry about investing a lot of time in an idea that doesn't pan out.

Magazines have different lead times. This refers to how far in advance they are working on an issue. Some work four to six months out and for others it may be a month. For publications with longer lead times, it's possible you will have two to three months to work on the piece before turning it in. For those with a shorter lead time, you may be given a couple of weeks to turn around the article. Regardless of the lead time, the process from query to publication is still relatively short.

NEW EXPERIENCES AND NEW PEOPLE

Writing for magazines can open up a new world for you. Over the years I have had the privilege of interviewing some wonderful people who have inspired and encouraged me, and some have even become my friends. I have met celebrities, business owners, artists, authors, and everyday people with extraordinary stories. With each one I feel more connected to those around me and my worldview expands.

There's advice floating around that says, write what you know, but that should be expanded to write what you want to know. In my local paper, years ago, was an article about Colorado wineries. After reading it, I wanted to know more about this topic. After all, I enjoyed a good glass of wine after work or with dinner. Having wineries nearby meant I could learn more without having to travel far. I researched the industry, wrote a query and received an assignment. I learned so much doing the article. Did you know that Colorado vineyards are the highest in terms of altitude in the northern hemisphere? And that the climate on the western slopes of Colorado near Grand Junction is ideal for grape growing? Winery owners took me on private tours, and sampling a Viognier right out of the barrel is an experience I'll never forget.

Through my articles I have learned about the Alaska Marine Highway, how to write for the children's app market, interesting facts about the Tongass National Forest, RV safety, and so much more. Getting paid to write the articles is great, but it goes beyond the money. I love the experiences afforded to me because of my magazine writing. With each new assignment comes the chance to expand my knowledge and learn more about the world and the people who live here.

YOU DON'T NEED A JOURNALISM DEGREE

The good news is that to venture into this world of magazine writing, you don't need a degree in journalism. I have a bachelor's degree in social science along with a teaching certificate. Editors have never asked about my degree. They look for well-written pieces that will be of interest to their readers.

You don't need an advanced or specialized degree, or even a college diploma, but you do need solid writing skills and a curiosity about the world around you. Your degree, if you have one, along with your unique life experiences, provides you with topics and article ideas where you might be considered an expert. Maybe you have been fly-fishing since you were a kid. Or you are a video game fanatic. Or you have six children (who are polite and well-behaved). These are all areas that don't require a degree, and readers of certain magazines would be interested to learn more from you.

Using your life experiences, your knowledge, and exploring areas you want to know more about gives you unique ideas and expertise that editors will welcome.

FOR THE LOVE OF RESEARCH

There is something exciting about gathering all the necessary information for an article. For me it's the thrill of the hunt, which can involve research on the computer, talking with experts, traveling to a destination, seeking facts, or collecting materials.

Years ago, we went on a trip to Alaska. While there, I picked up brochures everywhere we went, talked with the locals, jotted down notes, took photos, and experienced as much as I could. When I returned home I had a good collection of material and information. I then took one month and focused all my energy and queries on Alaska. I organized my notes, looked through the brochures and figured out potential story angles. I ended up with a feature assignment about traveling the Alaska Marine Highway that was published in a trade magazine, Family Motor Coaching. And just recently (ten years after this trip) I received an assignment with Alaska magazine to write about the Tongass National Forest, based on an idea that surfaced during that vacation. After initially sending out queries for this idea following the trip and getting "no thank yous," I put the query away. Every now and then I would think about it and send it out again. But nothing ever surfaced. Then at a writing conference I was talking with the editor of Alaska magazine. I shared with her that I had always wanted to write an article about the Tongass rainforest since visiting there. We talked and I told her I had queried the idea but never had found anyone interested in it. She said it could be a good fit for a specific department in her magazine if I changed the slant. We talked through it and by the end of the conversation, I had the assignment.

Researching and gathering information is what keeps writing for magazines interesting. It becomes a big puzzle with many moving parts, and then the fun comes when it's time to put all those pieces together into one article readers will enjoy.

I was working on an article for a writing magazine on the topic "Does social media really work?" My goal was to explore whether it was necessary for authors to participate on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms to be successful. I knew this was a huge topic that would take some digging and end up with a lot of moving parts. One question (along with a few others) I put out to writers, agents, and editors was "Have you seen a difference in sales for your authors (or yourself, if it went to an author) who are more active on social media? Please explain." The overwhelming response to that specific question was, "no," which was what I suspected.

Subsequently the big question in my head was why do people continue to do social media? In the follow-up, "Please explain," I received other helpful information that addressed my new question. Turns out, it was more about connecting with readers (which could happen on social media, but not always) and good writing. Once I got all my answers, I had to look them over carefully, determine the commonalities and differences, and put my conclusions into an interesting article for the reader.

Magazine writing is great, but it is work. There is nothing wrong with getting paid for your time and effort. Often writers have this idea that because it is a creative venture, they shouldn't expect to get paid. Magazines are a business and because of that you deserve compensation. This can range from ten dollars for an article up to one thousand dollars or more. You probably aren't going to get a top rate straight out of the chute, but it is something to work toward. Getting paid to have your work in the hands of readers is a definite perk. Plus this money can be a good way to supplement your income alongside a full-time job.

FLEXIBLE HOURS

The beauty of magazine writing is that you decide how much time you are putting into it. You choose how many assignments you want. Maybe you want to start with one a month or maybe you want to jump all the way in and get as many as you can. When I first started, I was a full-time teacher, wife, and mother of three; writing was something I did on the side. I worked on one article at a time. That year I had seven assignments, which was perfect. It allowed me to devote time and energy to my family and my career, while having this small job just for me.

If you are interested in being a full-time freelance writer, it will take months to gear up to this by sending out dozens of queries and making connections with editors. Debbie Hanson, a freelance writer from Florida, says, "It's important to have a high degree of patience when starting out. Don't expect a freelance writing career to take off overnight. It takes time to build credibility and editorial contacts." Whether you write for magazines part-time or full-time, you control your schedule and how much work you accept. The flip side is the work can be inconsistent, and you have to be prepared for that as well.

WORKING FROM HOME (OR ON THE ROAD)

Magazine writing is a freelance endeavor that is done from home. This provides you many freedoms and options you wouldn't have otherwise. Depending on how far your work space is from your bedroom, there isn't a long commute each morning. If you work in your pajamas, no one cares, plus it saves money on work clothes. You can structure your work space and workday in whatever way suits your personality, strengths, and your family or household commitments. When you are tired of looking at the same four walls, you can take your computer on the road to a local coffee shop or library (though you will want to change out of your pajamas). If you want to travel, then by all means, pack up your laptop and go see the world.

It will give you great material and ideas to work with, and you can still write and submit queries.

Magazine writing is an area of the publishing world that is open to all writers. More than seven thousand print magazines and all digital publications need well-written content, and editors look for professional, competent writers to provide it. Why write for magazines? Because you can. With the right knowledge (found in this book) and preparation, seeing your byline on the pages of a magazine, either print or digital, is definitely possible.

WHY I LOVE WRITING FOR MAGAZINES

INSIGHT FROM FREELANCE WRITERS

JORDAN ROSENFELD: I love generating new ideas and the "high" of a pitch that is accepted. I love interviewing people and consolidating data into a digestible outcome. I love the freedom and flexibility to set my own schedule.

DANIELLE BRAFF: I love that I can write about anything I want. For example, whenever I have a problem with my kids, I write an article about it so that I can spend time speaking with all the experts. I just finished writing an article for the Chicago Tribune about sibling rivalry because my children can't stop arguing. I got to interview a bunch of different child psychologists and other experts to get lots of different opinions on how to get this to stop.

MEGAN HILL: I like doing something different every day, and there's constantly an element of excitement that keeps me on my toes. I've got a great rotating stable of consistent projects that I love, and random new possibilities pop into my in-box every week. It's thrilling! I also love being my own boss and dictating how I spend my time. I don't ever feel my time is wasted. If I finish my work early, I can leave my office and go do something fun or relaxing, rather than feeling forced by office peer pressure to "look busy" for eight hours a day, five days a week.

TOM KEER: I think of print books, print magazines, digital magazines, blogs, and social media (among others) as pearls that become a necklace with a piece of thread. The thread that turns those individual pearls into a necklace is the creative process, and that is what I love about writing. I love moving along the path that takes me from a rough idea to a completed manuscript.

ROXANNE HAWN: The flexibility to structure my days and my life. I like not having to wear professional clothes, especially tights or hose.

MICKEY GOODMAN: Everything! I loved interviewing the dignitaries and famous visitors to campus like Malcolm X, The Kingston Trio, the prime minister of Indonesia — and seeing my byline in print. It was especially exciting when the AP and UPI (this was in the early sixties) picked up my stories for wider distribution. The most widely printed were a retrospect of Malcolm X after his murder and a series of articles I wrote about the studies underway at UNC Medical Center, including one of the first on autism.

STACEY MCKENNA: I adore the schedule — both setting my own hours and days. But I also appreciate the intellectual freedom. Freelancing lets me pursue the reaches of my curiosity. I love that each story opens new trails to be explored.

DEBBIE HANSON: Being able to share my experiences and knowledge through the written word.

AMANDA CASTLEMAN: I love the freedom to organize my day, pursue stories I'm passionate about, and travel the world.

Article Example: FOB (Front of the Book)

BASIC PROCESS OF MAGAZINE WRITING, A QUICK OVERVIEW

The number of magazines is on the rise, giving writers more opportunities for publication. It is helpful to understand the basic process of publishing an article before exploring this option. We'll explore this in depth in the chapters ahead, but here is a quick overview of the process.

IDEA: There are really no new ideas, but there are plenty of new ways to slant them. It is important to find a unique angle that makes your article stand out and one that hasn't been covered by the magazine recently.

QUERY: This is a one-page sales pitch to the editor of a magazine. It gives an initial hook, an overview of the idea, the basic direction of the article, and what qualifies you to write it.

ASSIGNMENT: If an editor likes your idea, she will offer you a contract that spells out what she wants in regard to word count, deadline, and payment. Once the contract is signed, you can move on to the article.

WRITE ARTICLE: Now it's time to put together all the information you collected. Stay within your assigned word count and send the article to the editor before the deadline.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Writer's Digest Books; Illustrated edition (July 17, 2018)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1440351244
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1440351242
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.01 x 0.62 x 8.98 inches
• #319 in Words, Language & Grammar Reference
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About the author

Kerrie l. flanagan.

Kerrie Flanagan is an author, writing consultant, instructor with Stanford Continuing Studies, and freelance writer with over 20 years’ experience in the publishing industry. She is a frequent contributor to The Writer magazine and her work has also appeared in dozens of other publications including Alaska Magazine, Writer’s Digest and six Chicken Soup for the Soul books. She is the author of, The Writer's Digest Guide to Magazine Article Writing and creator of the Magazine Writing Blueprint.

In addition, she has published twenty other books, including eleven sci-fi and fantasy novels with a coauthor under the pen name C.G. Harris. She was the founder of Northern Colorado Writers (now Writing Heights Writers Assoc.) and led the group for ten years. Over the years, she has worked with hundreds of authors through classes and individual consultations. Her background in teaching, and enjoyment of helping writers has led her to present at writing conferences across the country.

https://www.kerrieflanagan.com

Twitter: @Kerrie_Flanagan

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KerrieFlanaganWriter

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Knowledge Base > Magazines > How to Write a Magazine Article? 12 Golden Rules

How to Write a Magazine Article? 12 Golden Rules

Although the number of magazines is shrinking in the digital age, many magazines have moved online. Many magazines created by online magazine maker are still popular, and authors enjoy fame and respect. That’s why, for many freelance writers, writing articles in magazines is often a career goal – because the pay can be ten times more per word than writing articles or texts for the local newspaper.

Writing magazine articles requires a different skill set than writing blog posts, screenplays, or advertisements. What’s more, as a magazine writer, more than in any other industry, you need to specialize to succeed. You write articles about history differently, sports differently, and sports history in a different way still.

A talent for writing, a love of meticulous research, and flexibility in creating texts are vital skills you need to master. Therefore, many people are interested in creating and publishing their own magazine need to master this specific style and learn how to write a magazine article.

What is a magazine article?

What is a magazine.

A magazine is a publication that is a collection of articles that appears regularly. The magazine articles can be about any topic, as well as topics that interest a specific group, such as sports fans, music fans, or board game enthusiasts.

A magazine can be published weekly, monthly, bimonthly, or only a few times a year. Most magazines are published once a week or once a month. Most magazine articles do not have a list of sources and are written by regular magazine editors and writers, rarely freelance writers.

Most magazine articles are easy to read and don’t take too long to read. They are often illustrated with photos or other images, and are written with simple but remarkable fonts . Today, magazines are increasingly being replaced by websites, but there are still many magazines on various topics.

A magazine article is a specific text that can be found in a magazine or newspaper. It can be a report, a profile of an important person, an opinion piece, a discussion of a topic or a personal essay. Depending on the topic, a magazine article is usually 1,000 to 5,000 words long.

The magazine usually employs a group of editors who come up with a theme for each issue and relevant article ideas. This way, all the articles and features in the issue will have something in common. A sports magazine might talk about the start of a new season, a political magazine about an upcoming election, and a Valentine’s Day issue might be about romance.

How the format of a magazine article differs from that of a newspaper or other articles? In a newspaper that comes out every day, put the most important parts of the story first. Newspaper articles are usually read once and aren’t supposed to influence anyone. It has to be news, something you want to read.

On the other hand, a good magazine article should often start with a mystery, a question, or a situation that makes the reader want to read on. Daily newspaper articles should be unbiased descriptions of what happened, while magazine articles, often subjective, can cover a particular topic from a certain angle. To learn how to write a magazine article, you need to know what the magazine is about and how to appeal to its readers.

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Types and examples of magazine articles

Magazine editors categorize articles by type and often mention them in publication’s submission guidelines, so knowing these types by name will help you communicate with the editor. These are: First Person Article, Opinion Piece, Information or Service Piece, Personality Profile, and Think Piece. Many news articles, how-to articles, and reviews can also be found in magazines, but they are slightly different, and many of these have moved online, to digital magazines . Articles can also feature essays or humor pieces.

First Person Article

First-person magazine articles are written in the first person because they are based on personal experience. Depending on their length and newsworthiness, they can be sold as feature articles or essays. They are frequently personal accounts, especially interesting if they are written by a well-known magazine writer or celebrity. Typically, the purpose of such an article is stated in the first line or paragraph to hook the magazine’s target audience, such as “I voted for this politician, and now I regret my life choices.” When you write a magazine article like this one, you should present an unpopular or overlooked point of view from a fresh perspective.

Opinion Piece

This kind of magazine writing piece or opinion essay is less personal than the First-Person Article, but it still requires a narrow focus on a specific topic. The reader’s main question is, “Why are you qualified to render an opinion?” Everyone has an opinion, but why should anyone read yours?

If you’re an expert on this subject, let the reader know right away. Don’t criticize music trends if you’re not a musician! Demonstrate your knowledge, and support your opinion with up-to-date information and credentials.

Information/Service Piece

An informational or service piece expands the reader’s understanding of a particular subject. This can be a guide, a list of important issues. You can either be the expert or interview one. These are extremely pertinent to a specific industry. In a sports magazine article, you can explain a complete history of a sports team and its roster for the upcoming season.

You can expect some in-depth knowledge if the article title contains the phrases like Myths about or Secrets of. Explain everything you know: magazine journalism is different than being a freelance writer in that you should have some industry knowledge already.

Personality profile

This type of magazine article can present a silhouette of an important or relevant person – a politician, a political activist, a sports legend… If you’re writing for a video game magazine you can showcase a famous game designer or even an entire article can be about a game character like Lara Croft or Guybrush Threepwood, if the fictional character is detailed enough! Explain why readers will find this person interesting or noteworthy.

Think Piece

Written in an investigative tone, the think piece frequently shows the downside or less popular ideas of a popular industry aspect. This magazine article could also explain why something is popular or why a political party lost elections. A think piece is more in-depth than most feature articles and necessitates credibility. Confirm your thesis by interviewing analysts and experts. This type of article can be also found in zines , self-published magazines in small circulation, which often focus on niche hobbies, counterculture groups, or subcultures. If you would like to expend your knowledge about interviewing, make sure to check our guide on how to write an interview article .

How to start a magazine article?

Most creative writing professionals would agree that the best way to start writing a magazine article is with a strong opening sentence. A feature article must draw the attention of your target audience, and grab them from the go.

You can start by asking the reader a question which you will answer in the text of the article – for instance “Did you know that most users of Windows never use 80% of their functions – and that’s a good thing?”. In the content of your magazine articles you will be able to answer this question.

Another example of a good magazine article beginning is storytelling – human brains are fascinated by stories. Starting your example with “20 years ago no one in the industry knew what a genitine was, but now their inventor is one of the most influential people” can draw attention and spike up curiosity.

A great example is also a shocking quote – a compelling idea that goes against the grain is sure to capture the reader’s attention.

Most creative magazine article ideas

Even the most experienced journalists can often be looking for ideas for great articles. How to write a magazine article if you don’t have the slightest idea? Here are some of our suggestions:

Take a look at your specialty. If you’re a freelance writer, it’s a good idea to write about what you know. Delve into a topic thoroughly, and you’ll eventually find your niche and you might move from freelance writing jobs to magazine writing! Why? Having a writing specialty will make magazine editors think of you when story ideas in that genre come up.

Check out what’s trending. When browsing popular stories on social networks, many freelancers choose to write about current events. Lists of popular articles can help you understand what to focus your efforts on. Keep in mind that an article for national magazines needs to be well researched, and what’s trending now may change before the magazine finally comes out.

Reach out to the classics. Nostalgia always sells well. You can go back to books or movies that people remember from their youth or, for example, summarize the last year. Lists and numbers always look good!

12 rules on how to write great magazine articles

1. Write what you know about

If your articles are really fascinating and you know what you are writing about, you have a better chance of getting published, whether in a local newspaper or in a major magazine. Writing requires researching your chosen issue thoroughly. Identify perspectives that have not been explored before – describe something from the perspective of a woman, a minority, or a worker.

2. Research how you should write

Check the writing style requirements or guidelines of the magazines to which you want to submit your work. Each magazine has its own set of guidelines on what topics, manner and tone to use. Check out Strunk and White Elements of Style for tips on writing styles, as this is what many magazines draw from.

3. Remember to be flexible

One of the most valuable writing talents a journalist can possess is flexibility. You may find that you discover completely new facts while writing a magazine article and completely change your approach. Maybe you’ll change your mind 180 degrees and instead of attacking someone, you’ll defend them – anything to attract attention.

4. Make connections and meet people

Networking is important in any business, especially for freelance writers who want to make a jump to magazine writing. Editors regularly quit one magazine to work for another. Therefore, remember to know the people first and foremost than the magazine they work for.

5. Prepare a query letter

A query letter tells the editors why your magazine article is important, whether you think someone will want to read it and why you feel obligated to write it. Add to it a text sample and some information about yourself as a writer. Even a local magazine might not be aware of who you are, after all.

6. Prepare an outline

Always before writing a text have an outline that you can use when composing your articles. It must contain the important ideas, the content of the article body and the summary, the points you will include in it. You will find that it is easier to fill such a framework with your own content.

7. Meet the experts

You need to know pundits in your industry. There are several methods of locating experts, from networking to calling organizations or agencies in your field of interest. If you want to meet a police officer, call the police station and ask if someone could talk to a journalist – many people are tempted if you promise them a feature article.

8. Talk to experts

Once you get a contact for an expert, do your best to make the expert look as good as possible. The more prominent the expert, the better your text. Make a list of questions in advance and compare it with the outline to make sure you don’t forget anything. Remember to accurately describe your expert’s achievements and personal data.

9. Create a memorable title

This step can occur at any point in the process of writing an article for a magazine. Sometimes the whole article starts with a good title! However, there is nothing wrong with waiting until the article is finished before coming up with a title. The most important thing is that the title is catchy – editors-in-chief love that!

10. To write, you have to read

You never know where you will come across an inspiring text. It’s your duty as a good writer to read everything that falls into your hands, whether it’s articles on the front pages of major publications or small blog posts. Learn about the various issues that may be useful to your magazine writing skills .

11. Add a strong ending

End with a strong concluding remark that informs or elaborates on the theme of your piece. The last paragraph should make the reader satisfied, but also curious about the future progress of the issue. He must wonder “what’s next?” and answer the important questions himself.

12. Don’t give up

Writers are rejected hundreds of times, especially when they are initially learning how to create articles for magazines. However, even a seasoned freelance writer and professional journalist can get rejected. The most successful authors simply keep writing – being rejected is part of magazine writing. Freelance writing is a good school of writing career – including coping with rejection.

Now you know how to write a magazine article that will be engaging and interesting. Despite the digitalization of the market, writing magazine articles still offers many possibilities to a freelance writer or a seasoned professional. The market of press and magazines is evolving fast, but the basic principles of journalistic integrity stay the same!

You may be also interested in:

How To Publish Digital Magazine? How to Make a Magazine Cover With a Template? 5 Reasons to Start Using a Magazine Maker

Jakub Osiejewski is an experienced freelance writer and editor. He has written for various publications, including magazines, newspapers and websites. He is also a skilled layout graphic designer and knows exactly how to create visually appealing and informative PDFs and flipbooks!

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How to Write a Magazine Article Professionally

Qualified freelance writers know how to write a magazine article up to the set quality standards. They produce articles for different kinds of magazines highlighting various topics. Even the most popular magazines are in need of the services of freelance writers to get their publications filled with the required content.

If you desire to publish your article, the first thing you need to do is send a query letter to the magazine editors and try to sell your brilliant ideas. Imagine you are assigned to create an article. What would you do to capture readers’ attention and make your editor order articles from you regularly?

How to Write a Magazine Article

Below, there are helpful prompts on how to write a magazine article properly.

Select the subject which you are good at

You will be able to succeed in creating top-notch articles if you are completely familiar with the chosen topic . Publishers always search for profound articles providing valuable information about the matter in question. In order to pick the right topic, you should create a list of themes which you find engaging and strive to select those which you could sell to some magazines without a hassle.

Highlight the issue from a new perspective

If your article is appealing, it will be easier for you to get it published. Thus, explore the chosen subject and try to determine the aspects which have not been studied yet and can be of keen interest to readers. Additionally, you have to make certain that your topic does not belong to the general ones as publishers do not buy the articles that are of no use to their target audience.

Conduct research

You should do research even if it seems to you that you are fully aware of the topic you are going to create your article on. In this way, you will be able to collect more useful material for your feature and, as a result, impress readers with the result. Browse authoritative sources and interview professionals if needed.

Do interviews

Take a look at your research and ponder over the sub-themes which you could disclose by interviewing experts. Remember that interviews make articles more interesting, and editors always give preference to such articles.

Seeking a Professional

If you want your magazine article to contain an interview from an expert, you should cold-call organizations operating in the required area. You may also address PR agencies to get some advice on where to find specialists competent in your field.

Interviewing a Specialist

In order to conduct an interview successfully, you should prepare a list of questions which you would like to ask. It is worth following your plan when creating questions not to miss any points. Ensure that your list contains such data as name, job position, and location.

Pick the place and time for the interview that is suitable for the interviewee. With the interviewee’s consent, you may record your conversation. Ask open-ended questions. Try not to deviate from your course meaning ask all questions which you intended to.

Produce an outline

The next stage is to prepare an outline by following which you will be able to create the best magazine article. Your outline has to include the points highlighting the concepts you will discuss in your paper. Think about adding images, graphics, etc.

Write your article

There is no specific format which you should apply when writing magazine articles. It is up to you to decide what mode to use. In order to catch readers’ attention, you should use their own language. However, at first, you need to identify your target audience to know how to present data. Mind that the purpose of reading magazines is to not only find out some information but also get amused.

Check out the guidelines of the magazines

Check the demands imposed by the magazine which you want to publish your article in. Each magazine has their own guidelines about how to write a magazine article. Here, it goes about the topics, writing style and tone, etc. It is advised to read the articles published in the magazine which you are going to submit your article to. Thus, you will know exactly what types of features the publishing entity is searching for.

Send your piece of writing

Strive to make a good impression on the managers of the magazine in the course of communication. Make certain your emails are produced appropriately and clearly state your intentions. Remember to respond to the received letters on time.

Arranging a Magazine Article Format

As well as other kinds of articles, a magazine one should include a title, introductory section, body, and a concluding unit.

Organizing your article appropriately will ensure its clarity. Thus, check the following points to understand not only how to write a magazine article but also arrange it:

• Title (here, you should highlight the topic of your article)
• Introductory section (it should clearly present the matter under consideration so that readers know what they are going to read about).
• Body (in this part, you should highlight the details of your subject, i.e. specifics, facets, experts’ viewpoints, statistics, etc.). This section should include a couple of paragraphs only. Mind not to exceed the number of the words allowed as the whole structure may be ruined.
• Concluding unit (this is the final section of your article where you should provide a brief summary of the entire piece of writing. Here, you are supposed to briefly describe the key ideas.). Try to finish your article effectively to give readers the material to ponder over. Make sure your conclusion is closely connected to the entire article.  
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Writing for Magazine: Types, Characteristics, Difference, Writing Styles

What is magazine.

A magazine is a publication that is issued periodically. It generally contains essays, stories, poems, articles, fiction, recipes, images, etc. Magazines are directed at a general and special audience, often published on a weekly or monthly basis.

Table of Contents

A magazine can also be considered as a cabinet of curiosities; i.e. a display case in which interesting, unusual, and occasionally ‘eccentric’ objects are collected and displayed as a conversation piece or an expression of the writer’s wide-ranging interests or tastes.

The readers are treated with a fascinating, mind-expanding, and unique set of wonders they had never dreamt of.

Characteristics of Magazines

Characteristics of magazines While popular magazines provide broad overviews of topics, scholarly journals provide in-depth analysis of topics and report the findings of the research, and trade magazines report on industry trends, new products, or techniques.

A popular magazine that caters to the general public uses non-technical language. The contents of these magazines include interviews, general interest articles, and various types of features. They usually cover a wide range of topics based on research, source comments, and generalizations.

Articles are usually written by a staff writer or a journalist; in some cases, interesting articles of freelancers are also encouraged. They generally contain many interesting and sometimes sensuous photographs to attract readers.

In general, magazine articles are easy to read, fairly brief in length, and may include illustrations or photographs. Magazines don’t necessarily follow a specific format or structure in writing the articles.

Its attractive appearance, eye-catching cover pictures, and illustrations on quality paper make it more appealing to the reading public. Magazines also contain many colorful and impressive advertisements.

Difference between Newspaper and Magazine

Newspapers and magazines are two important forms of print media that are read by millions of people around the world. Some of the most common differences between newspapers and magazines can be seen through their size and appearance, content, style, target audience, design and layout, readability, and advertisements.

Let’s discuss the difference between newspapers and magazines :

Size and Appearance

Design and layout, target audience, readability, display ads, visual strength.

Newspapers are bigger in size and they can be folded. A story above the middle fold on the front page of a newspaper is considered the most important story and one that appears just below the fold is generally the second most important story.

If there are many important stories on a newspaper page, then the treatment given to a story will decide its importance: such as photos/graphics with a more important story and with no visual elements in other stories. The eyes of a reader can scan an entire page without a fold.

A magazine tends to have a “book-type” size while the newspaper is really meant to be spread arm’s length for the reader to grasp its contents.

Newspapers deal with reports clearly, briefly, and objectively. A magazine writer focuses on specialized topics and current issues of public interest. Newspapers remain the primary source of authentic, reliable, and latest information about what is happening around the world and even in one’s own locality.

But magazines are not sources of fresh content to the extent of publishing the breaking news. However, its content is specialized and recent in nature. Thus, we have various magazines such as entertainment, science, share markets, sports, glamour, and movies.

Newspapers are more versatile in content and hence they never fall short of content as there is always something happening in different parts of the world. On the other hand, magazine content is always based on the liking of the readers of diverse backgrounds.

Newspapers focus on catchy headlines to create interest in the reader. Many reporters and editors are employed in newspapers to prepare specialized reports and interpretative articles. But magazines have lesser staff. A magazine writer has more freedom to express or has more room for subjectivity.

She/he has the tenacity and freedom to express things in a creative manner. It further enhances the writer’s mastery of the expression by imploring these seemingly circular methods of self-expression.

The newspaper writer on the other hand is compounded to a somewhat strict, strong, and straight writing mostly based on facts and figures.

Newspapers are known for their simple layout and design . While the content is usually in black and white, the style and font are fairly consistent throughout. Magazines have much more visual expression than newspapers because magazines are not subject to one consistent layout.

Magazines use lots of colors, different types and sizes of fonts, and break up their articles with images and color.

The main difference between a newspaper and a magazine is that newspapers are written for a general audience , while magazines are for specific types of audiences. A magazine attracts varied target audiences . A newspaper’s target audience is determined by its geography and its focus is broad.

Here, the editor determines what the people should read, what they want and desire. In contrast, a magazine’s target audience is determined by demographics and interests. (‘Demographics’ means the physical characteristics of the individual such as race, gender, interest, education level, etc.).

News stories are usually written in a matter-of-fact style. But magazines employ colorful language so as to make the content enjoyable.

The newspaper readability level corresponds to a difficult classification built around tight grammatical and syntactical rules. Linguistic subjectivity which relies on expressive adjectives enhances the readability of magazines.

Though magazines and newspapers both provide readers with information, their format and appeal differ considerably. Magazines are more advertiser-driven than newspapers. Newspapers are slightly different in this regard. Newspapers are driven more by readership than by advertisers.

They focus more on catchy headlines in an effort to capture the reader’s interest and get him to read the entire story. Part of the reason for this is that people often associate what they read with an ad they see near the piece. Our minds just naturally attach and group objects and associations together.

Advertising giants know this and place their ads exactly in proper alignment with stories and articles they want to associate with their products on those specialized magazines.

The visual strength of magazines is enhanced with the effective use of color in magazines. In magazines, we can also use a color background whereas newspapers normally have only a white background. This means you can present more attractive color contrasts in your magazine visuals.

Another strength of magazines is a longer life . Newspapers are read-only once and then discarded. In contrast, magazines are commonly kept for several days, weeks, or months in magazine racks which provides for possible repeat reading.

Magazines use some of the highest-quality paper and ink to produce a visually appealing product meant to be kept and read longer than a newspaper. Magazines tend to focus on entertainment pieces, provide how-to-do articles and features about certain subjects within their chosen marketing niche.

Magazines also have advertisements taking up large amounts of page space to balance the cost of production.

Basics of Magazine Writing

The joy of magazine writing lies in its variety. Anything from a celebrity interview to a food recipe can be the topic for magazine articles and this variety demands versatility. Coverage of events for magazines offers challenges as well as opportunities to journalists.

A creative flair and innovative skill may help in producing masterpieces and also in creating an everlasting impression on the reader’s mind. The language used depends, to a certain extent, on the objective of the magazine.

Literary style is generally preferred by the magazine press. Thus magazine writing requires a different way of thinking, writing, and structuring. Effective magazine writing is accessible, interesting, lively, colorful, grabbing, and relevant.

Whatever be the type of publication a journalist writes for, the basic approach is the same: write for your readers. However, good writing for magazines depends on the adherence to some well-known guidelines.

Though there are not many lengthy rules, there are guidelines a magazine writer should follow to produce a stylish copy. The most important among them can be summarized as follows:

• Know whom you are writing for, their interests and concerns.
• Know what you want to say and achieve.
• Always prefer the concrete to the abstract.
• Be accurate and readable.
• Have an attention grabbing intro.
• Spend considerable time thinking about fresh ways to ap-proach the subject.
• Keep materials and sentences short.
• Promote a vibrant style.
• Know the publication’s editorial policy to achieve your di-rection.

Magazine writers often develop a strong personal style that is opinionated, anecdotal, and gossipy while developing the content. The quality of the content and style are equally important. The wordplay and tricks of style make the piece entertaining to read.

How to Structure Magazine Article

As soon as you’re ready to write a magazine article, you need to think about structure. With magazine articles, you can move beyond the inverted pyramid style of news by scattering important points throughout the article .

Tell a Story

The beginning, extra credit.

The important thing to remember is that you’re telling a story to your readers. That means you need a beginning, a middle, and an end. It also means you need to think about where you’re taking your reader and create a logical path to that endpoint.

To get people to read your article, you need to find a way to grab them. For example, you can begin an article with a quote or an anecdote from a person’s life. However, you can also set the scene or use anything that will attract the reader’s attention.

With most magazine articles, you talk to a person or people. People like reading about other people, so if your interviewee says something good, use a quote rather than the reported speech. This makes your magazine article more interesting.

Finally, end with a bang. This could be in the form of an important point, a revelation, or another anecdote or quote. The idea is to satisfy your reader and to get that reader interested in your other writings as well.

When you do research for an article, you often have information left over that didn’t make it into the main piece. Don’t get rid of this. Use it to create a sidebar or table (editors will love this), or as the starting point for another article.

Magazine Writing Styles

Let us now discuss some of the common styles used by the magazines in their presentation of articles:

Narrative Writing

Serialised narrative writing, descriptive writing, persuasive writing, imaginative writing, visual writing, multiple inverted pyramid.

Narratives are works that provide an account of connected events. In a narrative style, you’ll need to tell a story in such a way that the audience learns a lesson or gains insight. Narrative writing is a type of writing in which the author places himself as the character and leads you to the story.

Here, is a narrative, a story or event is told through characters and dialogues. Narrative writing has definite and logical beginnings, intervals, and endings. Narrative writing uses many literary techniques to provide deeper meaning for the reader and it also helps the reader use his / her imagination to visualize situations.

Literary techniques include metaphors, similes, personification, imagery, hyperbole, alliteration, back story, flashback, flash-forward, foreshadowing, and narrative perspective or point of view.

In this style, you cannot find out what’s going to happen next. You have to wait. Here the writer really understands how to hold a reader by his/her side and make them stick on with the piece till the end. That’s the skill absolutely essential for this style of writing.

The first and most essential quality of a serial narrative is that it has to be immensely, intensely, and inescapably readable. They should have a powerful pull on all readers with the power of a delicious sense of enforced writing.

Descriptive writing focuses on describing a character, an event, or a place in great detail. It is sometimes poetic in nature in which the author is specifying the details of the event rather than just the information of that event.

In a descriptive style, the writer needs to describe a person, object, or event so vividly that the reader feels like s/he could reach out and touch it. The writer attempts to convey as many of the senses related to the subject as possible for a clearer understanding of what is being described.

Descriptive writing has a unique power and appeal, as it evokes sensory description through sights, smells, sounds, textures, and tastes through the text to your reader.

This writing revolves around convincing someone. Persuasion requires great skill and effort to convince your readers to endorse your opinion or viewpoint. You write with the sole objective of persuading your readers. Persuasive writing utilizes the power of words to confidently and passionately convey a very important matter.

Such writings are usually written with precision and authority. Persuasive texts are set out to argue and prove a case by presenting ideas that follow a logical progression. It aims to convince a targeted audience of the validity of a viewpoint on an issue by presenting logical arguments.

Imaginative writings present ideas, issues, and arguments in an imaginative and credible way through the description, characters, settings, figurative language, the five senses, etc. Imaginative writing assumes the form of fiction, specifically short stories.

Depending on the idea, the imaginative article can discuss anything from space travel to civil rights. Because of this wide variation, some imaginative pieces require a very serious response, while others invite a much more light-hearted, fantastic one.

Usually, imaginative write-ups start with a hypothetical situation and ask how you would respond to it. It should be credible and plausible and must convey information through the description and figurative language. Add sensory details and realistic conversation.

Also include imaginary interactions with the characters. The characters should be dynamic in nature and they should see things differently or act differently by the end of the story. Narrate and describe events, characters, and situations.

Visual writing is a good language for storytelling in any medium. It focuses on the mind, distinctive details from the intricately interconnected experiences of the individual. Visual writing creates depth, quality, and pacing.

The visual style isn’t an extension of the writing, but it has to be embedded into the writing in a way that the reader may not even be aware of its presence. This means the visual style is not about adding more but enriching an already existing text.

Visual communication engages meaningful experiences and feelings within individuals through richly embedded image symbols which are conveyed either directly through text or indirectly through other senses.

In the field of magazine journalism , the term ‘multiple inverted pyramid approach’ refers to a style of writing which informs and entertains the readers through self-sufficiently built plots of information, each of which may be arranged in the form of an inverted pyramid.

The fact is that the idea of the whole story is spilled in the first paragraph itself. The reader can decide whether to continue reading the details or to go into something else. But even if the reader stops at a certain point, this form of writing may provide some essential facts to the readers.

Types of Magazines

Today, there are thousands of magazines worldwide. They inspire, inform, educate and entertain audiences across the globe. Nearly 600 years after the advent of the printing press, magazines continue to change the nature of things throughout the world.

The major types of magazines are briefly explained below:

General Interest Magazines

Special interest magazines, farm magazines, sports magazines, business magazines, environmental magazines, entertainment magazines, automobile magazines, children’s magazines, women’s magazines, men’s magazines, literary magazines.

This type of magazine is published for a wider audience to provide information, in a general manner and the focus is on many different subjects. The main purpose of a general interest magazine is to provide information for the general audience. No background knowledge or expertise is assumed.

Articles usually provide broad coverage of topics of current interest. They are written by journalists, freelance writers, or staff correspondents of the magazine. These periodicals may be quite attractive in appearance, with articles often heavily illustrated with photographs.

The language of these publications is geared to any educated audience. There is no especially assumed target audience. Mere interest and a certain level of intelligence are only required to read and enjoy such magazines.

These are usually published by commercial enterprises, though some are published by professional organizations. Examples of general-interest periodicals are Time, Newsweek, Outlook, India Today, and The Week.

Special interest publications are magazines directed at specific groups of readers with common interests. Most special interest magazines cater to any specific interests or pursuits. For instance, there are magazines that cover sports, news, fashion, business, music, and so on.

While some attempt to cover all aspects of a broad subject, others are concerned only with a particular element of the general subject. Sports Illustrated, for example, contains stories on practically any sport, but Golf Digest carries only stories related to golf.

Other special interest publications find their audiences through different demographic segmentation. There are magazines published primarily for men (Field and Stream, Gentlemen’s Quarterly (GQ), etc.), women (Woman’s World, Grihalekshmi, Vanitha, etc.), boys (Boys’ Life) and girls (Teen Vogue). Specialized periodicals also serve most professions, industries, and organizations.

These are magazines featuring news and information pertaining to the agricultural sector. It is a resource for farmers and vendors of farmers’ markets.

There are various farm magazines that contain information about various farming equipment, farming practices, ideas and technology suitable to small and big farms, raising unusual livestock, growing high-value crops, direct marketing of their products to bring in more income, the latest techniques for growing bountiful, nutritious crops and many more articles that could provide information to the farmers who are their target audience.

They also share the success stories of artisans and farmers, on government policies and programs, and also about how to promote their business by reaching new customers and develop value-added products.

A sports magazine usually features articles or segments on sports comprising of many photographic images and illustrations. Some magazines concentrate on all general sports news and related issues while others concentrate on specific sports or games such as football, baseball, athletics, etc.

But the common aim of any sports magazine is to take fans inside the game and provide a mix of columns, features, profiles of their favorite players, scores, statistics, and analysis of the game.

News and information about sports, reviews, interviews, expert advice, player profiles, season previews, predictions, and pre-game analysis as well as quality photos are some of the main ingredients in a sports magazine.

Most of these magazines are dedicated to the dissemination of information related to particular business areas like accounting, banking, finance, international business, management, marketing and sales, real estate, small business, etc.

They explore the latest news and reviews on current trends in the world of business. Business magazines offer readers an unparalleled look at business and economic news, with incomparable access to business drivers around the globe.

It also provides the most recent news about trends and developments in global business, financial markets, and personal finance.

The aim of this type of magazine is to provide information about environmental issues and to share ideas about our very diverse and dynamic environment so that readers can live more sustainable lives and connect themselves to ideas and ongoing efforts for change, as well as for building a more just and sustainable future.

They cover everything environmental – from the big issues like climate change, renewable energy, toxins, and health to the topics that directly impact the readers’ daily lives: population, poverty, consumption, and the environment in general.

In-depth reviews of major policy reports, conferences, environmental education initiatives, environmental reports, and photos from around the world with an emphasis on human involvement in an environmentally changed scenario are some of the highlighted features of environmental magazines .

Entertainment magazines are usually glossy in nature and provide entertainment. They usually carry news, original stories, scandals, gossips, and exclusives about celebrities in various entertainment fields such as film, music, TV, fashion, and related similar areas of the industry.

Cultural criticism, beauty, lifestyle trends, and shopping guides also find expression in such magazines. As its main focus is on celebrity fashion or lifestyle, it is graphically rich in nature, featuring many photographs or other images.

Automobile magazines offer a rich and varied examination of the automotive universe in all its forms, illustrated with vibrant photography. They present interesting automotive news in the industry and celebrate the automotive lifestyle and its personalities, past and present.

It also offers insights into emerging trends in the industry and also creates images of whatever comes next in the written and visual form.

Updates in the motor vehicle arena such as newly arrived cars and bikes, contemporary style of vehicles, recommendations to buyers, reviews of newly launched vehicles are some of the attractive elements in these magazines.

The main aim of children’s magazines is to engage children to learn new things through entertainment and to provide memories that last a lifetime. The content is delivered through colorful images, read-aloud stories, and various fun activities that both the parent as well as the child can enjoy together.

Children’s magazines are designed to set young children on the path to becoming curious, creative, caring, confident individuals through reading, thinking, and learning with a wide variety of stories, puzzles, crafts, games, and activities. 3D children’s magazines are now on sale in Kerala.

Women’s magazines play a variety of roles as educators, family counselors, beauty specialists,s and lifestyle experts. Women’s magazines, on many occasions, have become an arena for debate and promotion of education for women.

The personal nature of the content also makes it a unique material specifically for women. The gorgeous photographs, engaging designs, and innovative styles make them attractive.

The outlook of a women’s magazine is an intelligent perspective that is focused on personal style – the way women actually look, think and dress. They reflect the spirit of today’s woman – changing with the times, moving with trends, styles, and fashion.

Men’s magazines bring the latest style tips, travel guides, lifestyle improvement, offering advice and information useful to men on a variety of topics including money , health, sports, cars, adventure, politics, and so on. Men’s magazines use masculinity as a marketing tool.

A literary magazine devoted to literature, usually publishes short stories, poetry, essays, literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews, and any content related to literature.

Its aim is to promote literature, encompass an overall sense of the word, preserve indigenous literature and provide a platform for creative writers through its articles.

FAQs About Writing for Magazine

What is the difference between newspaper and magazine.

These are the following points of difference between newspapers and magazines: 1. Size and Appearance 2. Content 3. Style 4. Design and Layout 5. Target Audience 6. Readability 7. Display Ads 8. Visual Strength 9. Shelf Life.

What are the basics of magazine writing?

The following are the magazine writing styles: 1. Narrative Writing 2. Serialized Narrative Writing 3. Descriptive Writing 4. Persuasive Writing 5. Imaginative Writing 6. Visual Writing 7. Multiple Inverted Pyramid.

What are the types of magazines?

The following are the types of magazines: 1. General Interest Magazines 2. Special Interest Magazines 3. Farm Magazines 4. Sports Magazines 5. Business Magazines 6. Environmental Magazines 7. Entertainment Magazines 8. Automobile Magazines 9. Children’s Magazines 10. Women’s Magazines 11. Men’s Magazines 12. Literary Magazines.

Related posts:

• Introduction to Communication: Definition, Elements, Types
• Characteristics of Newspapers and Newspaper Summary
• Media Organisations in India: Types, Media Print, Electronic, Film, Training Institutes
• What is News Editing? Objectives, Principles, Role, Functions
• Radio Programs: Technologies, Types of programs, Types of Radio Broadcasting
• Basics of Technical Writing: Evolution, Scope, Qualities, Process
• History of Advertising in India: Effects, Areas, Purpose of Advertising
• Classification of Advertising Based on Area Coverage, Audience, Media, Functions
• Oral Communication: Definitions, Importance, Methods, Types, Advantages, and Disadvantages
• Mass Communication: Definitions, Functions, Characteristics, Types, Importance, and Process
• 8 Functions of Mass communication
• 8 Elements of Mass Communication
• 10 Characteristics of Mass Communication
• Scope of Business Communication
• Human Communication: Meaning, Origins, Stages, and Types

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Writing contests, make money writing, hottest topics, how to write a magazine article.

Freelance writers write many of the articles featured in magazines. Freelancers write for all types of magazines including major consumer titles like Glamour , trade magazines like Target Marketing , and the hundreds of other magazines published everyday by companies and custom publishers.

If you want to get your article published in a magazine, you must first sell your idea to the editors with a great query letter. But once you have an assignment, how do you write an interesting article that will keep your readers interested and keep your editor coming back to you time after time with assignments?

Here are 6 tips for how to write great magazine articles.

Know Your Audience

The first thing a writer should focus on is exactly who their reader is. Does the magazine target teen girls or CEOs? Knowing who the magazine targets will help you focus your article so that you’re speaking directly to your audience.

For instance, trade magazines are targeted to professionals working within a certain industry. These readers want information that they can use on a daily basis to operate their businesses successfully. A common mistake for a new magazine writer might be to write a trade article that targets the wrong audience. If you’re writing an article for an HR trade magazine, don’t write tips for finding a new job. Rather, the HR professional wants tips for how to find the best job candidates.

Stick to the Word Count

Magazine editors have a certain amount of space to fill each month. When you land an assignment to write an article, the editor will specify a certain word count, say 1,000 words. Don’t turn in an article of 1,500 words or 750 words. This will annoy your editor and create unnecessary problems. Aim to hit your target word count as closely as possible.

Find the Best Experts to Interview

Most magazine articles quote experts on the subject of the story. Make sure that you find and interview the best possible sources for your article and add their quotes to your article. Expert sources lend a voice of authority to articles and offer different perspectives for readers.

Edit Your Article

Be your own editor before submitting your article to the magazine. Don’t turn in a story riddled with grammar errors. It will make you look unprofessional and careless. Editors don’t want to spend hours rewriting a bad article. Editors want to work with writers who turn in clean copy that requires minimal edits. Help make your editor’s job easier by striving to turn in the best copy possible.

If you need to brush up on your grammar skills, there are plenty of books and guides on the market to help.

Meet Your Deadline

It goes without saying that you should meet your deadline. Again, you want your editor to love your work so that they will come back to you with future assignments. If you turn in late work or fail to turn in your article at all, don’t bank on future assignments from this editor.

You’ll set yourself apart from other magazine writers by always meeting your deadlines.

Understand Article Structure

Knowing how to write a great article takes practice. Articles have various components including the lede (or introduction), main body, and closing. Study articles by other writers in your favorite magazines to learn how they structure their articles. You can pick up article structure easily by studying the work of other top writers.

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50 Unbeatable Topics for Article Writing in School Magazine 2024

Are you looking for interesting and engaging topics to write about in your school magazine ? Look no further! In this article , we have compiled a list of 50 unbeatable topics that will captivate your readers and make your articles stand out. Whether you are interested in science, technology, history, or current events , there is something for everyone on this list. So, let's dive in and explore these exciting topics!

10 Important Statistics about School Magazines

• Over 80% of students read their school magazine regularly.
• 70% of students find the articles in their school magazine informative and interesting.
• School magazines have been shown to improve students' writing and critical thinking skills .
• 75% of teachers believe that school magazines help foster a sense of community among students.
• School magazines are an effective platform for showcasing students' creativity and talent.
• 90% of parents enjoy reading their child's school magazine.
• School magazines provide a valuable opportunity for students to develop their research and interviewing skills .
• 65% of students feel proud to see their work published in their school magazine.
• School magazines are a great way to promote school events and activities.
• Reading school magazines has been linked to improved academic performance.

1. The Importance of STEM Education in the 21st Century

STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) plays a crucial role in preparing students for the challenges of the 21st century. In this article, we will explore the importance of STEM education and its impact on students' future careers. We will also discuss the various initiatives and programs that schools can implement to promote STEM learning.

Why is STEM Education Important?

STEM education is important because it equips students with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in a rapidly changing world. By focusing on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, students develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills. These skills are highly valued in today's job market , where there is a growing demand for professionals in STEM fields.

2. The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Education

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize education by personalizing learning experiences, automating administrative tasks, and providing valuable insights into student performance . In this article, we will explore the role of AI in education and discuss its benefits and challenges. We will also examine how AI can be integrated into classrooms to enhance teaching and learning.

Benefits of AI in Education

AI can provide personalized learning experiences by adapting to individual students' needs and preferences. It can also automate administrative tasks, such as grading and scheduling, freeing up teachers' time to focus on instruction. Additionally, AI can analyze large amounts of data to identify patterns and trends in student performance, enabling educators to make data -driven decisions.

3. The Impact of Social Media on Teenagers

Social media has become an integral part of teenagers' lives, but its impact on their well-being and mental health is a topic of concern. In this article, we will explore the positive and negative effects of social media on teenagers and discuss strategies for promoting responsible social media use.

Positive Effects of Social Media

Social media allows teenagers to connect with friends and family, share their thoughts and experiences, and access information and resources. It can also provide a platform for self-expression and creativity. Additionally, social media can be a powerful tool for raising awareness about important issues and promoting social change.

4. The History and Significance of Women's Rights Movements

Women's rights movements have played a crucial role in advancing gender equality and empowering women throughout history. In this article, we will explore the history and significance of women's rights movements, from the suffrage movement to the modern-day feminist movement. We will also discuss the challenges that women still face today and the ongoing fight for gender equality.

The Suffrage Movement

The suffrage movement, which began in the late 19th century, fought for women's right to vote. It was a long and hard-fought battle, but it ultimately led to the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, granting women the right to vote. The suffrage movement laid the foundation for future women's rights movements and inspired women around the world to fight for their rights.

5. The Impact of Climate Change on Our Planet

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, with far-reaching consequences for our planet and future generations. In this article, we will explore the causes and effects of climate change and discuss the importance of taking action to mitigate its impact.

Causes of Climate Change

Climate change is primarily caused by human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrial processes. These activities release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, trapping heat and causing the Earth's temperature to rise. Other factors, such as natural disasters and changes in solar radiation, can also contribute to climate change.

6. The Benefits of Outdoor Education

Outdoor education provides students with unique learning opportunities and helps foster a deeper connection with the natural world. In this article, we will explore the benefits of outdoor education and discuss how schools can incorporate outdoor learning into their curriculum.

Benefits of Outdoor Education

Outdoor education promotes physical fitness and encourages students to engage in physical activity. It also enhances students' problem-solving and critical thinking skills by challenging them to navigate unfamiliar environments and overcome obstacles. Additionally, outdoor education can improve students' mental health and well-being by providing a break from the pressures of academic life.

7. The Evolution of Technology in Education

Technology has transformed the way we teach and learn, revolutionizing classrooms around the world. In this article, we will explore the evolution of technology in education, from the introduction of computers to the rise of online learning platforms . We will also discuss the benefits and challenges of integrating technology into classrooms.

The Rise of Online Learning

Online learning has become increasingly popular in recent years, offering students the flexibility to learn at their own pace and access educational resources from anywhere in the world. Online learning platforms provide a wide range of courses and programs, catering to diverse learning needs and interests. However, online learning also presents challenges, such as the need for self-discipline and motivation.

8. The Importance of Mental Health Awareness in Schools

Mental health issues among students are on the rise, highlighting the need for increased awareness and support in schools. In this article, we will explore the importance of mental health awareness in schools and discuss strategies for promoting positive mental health among students.

Strategies for Promoting Positive Mental Health

Schools can promote positive mental health by implementing comprehensive mental health programs, providing access to counseling services, and creating a supportive and inclusive school environment. It is also important to educate students about mental health and destigmatize seeking help for mental health issues.

9. The Impact of Literature on Society

Literature has the power to shape our thoughts, beliefs, and values, making it an important tool for social change. In this article, we will explore the impact of literature on society and discuss how it can inspire empathy, promote understanding, and challenge societal norms.

The Power of Storytelling

Storytelling is a powerful form of communication that has been used for centuries to convey ideas, share experiences, and preserve cultural heritage. Through literature, authors can tell stories that resonate with readers, evoke emotions, and provoke thought. Literature can also provide a platform for marginalized voices and amplify diverse perspectives.

There you have it - 50 unbeatable topics for article writing in your school magazine! Whether you choose to explore the importance of STEM education, the impact of social media on teenagers, or the history of women's rights movements, these topics are sure to captivate your readers and spark meaningful discussions. So, get writing and make your school magazine a must-read publication!

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What are some interesting topics for article writing for a school magazine in 2023?

Some interesting topics for article writing for a school magazine in 2023 could include the impact of technology on education, the importance of mental health awareness among students, and the role of social media in shaping teenage culture.

How can I choose a topic for article writing for a school magazine in 2023?

To choose a topic for article writing for a school magazine in 2023, you can consider current events, student interests, and issues relevant to your school community. You can also brainstorm ideas with your peers, teachers, or advisors to find a topic that is both engaging and informative.

What are some tips for writing articles for a school magazine in 2023?

Some tips for writing articles for a school magazine in 2023 include conducting thorough research, using credible sources, organizing your ideas in a clear and logical manner, and proofreading your work for grammar and spelling errors. It is also important to write in a style that is appropriate for your target audience and to include relevant visuals or multimedia elements to enhance the article.

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Chris Strachwitz, founder of Arhoolie Records, crisscrossed the United States photographing and recording musicians where they played

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‘ChatGPT Detector’ Catches AI-Generated Papers with Unprecedented Accuracy

A new tool based on machine learning uses features of writing style to distinguish between human and AI authors

• By McKenzie Prillaman , Nature magazine  on  November 7, 2023

A machine-learning tool can easily spot when chemistry papers are written using the chatbot ChatGPT, according to a study published on 6 November in  Cell Reports Physical Science . The specialized classifier, which outperformed two existing artificial intelligence (AI) detectors, could help academic publishers to identify papers created by AI text generators.

“Most of the field of text analysis wants a really general detector that will work on anything,” says co-author Heather Desaire, a chemist at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. But by making a tool that focuses on a particular type of paper, “we were really going after accuracy.”

The findings suggest that efforts to develop AI detectors could be boosted by tailoring software to specific types of writing, Desaire says. “If you can build something quickly and easily, then it’s not that hard to build something for different domains.”

The elements of style

Desaire and her colleagues first described their ChatGPT detector in June, when they applied it to Perspective articles from the journal  Science . Using machine learning, the detector examines 20 features of writing style, including variation in sentence lengths, and the frequency of certain words and punctuation marks, to determine whether an academic scientist or ChatGPT wrote a piece of text. The findings show that “you could use a small set of features to get a high level of accuracy,” Desaire says.

In the latest study, the detector was trained on the introductory sections of papers from ten chemistry journals published by the American Chemical Society (ACS). The team chose the introduction because this section of a paper is fairly easy for ChatGPT to write if it has access to background literature, Desaire says. The researchers trained their tool on 100 published introductions to serve as human-written text, and then asked ChatGPT-3.5 to write 200 introductions in ACS journal style. For 100 of these, the tool was provided with the papers’ titles, and for the other 100, it was given their abstracts.

When tested on introductions written by people and those generated by AI from the same journals, the tool identified ChatGPT-3.5-written sections based on titles with 100% accuracy. For the ChatGPT-generated introductions based on abstracts, the accuracy was slightly lower, at 98%. The tool worked just as well with text written by ChatGPT-4, the latest version of the chatbot. By contrast, the AI detector ZeroGPT identified AI-written introductions with an accuracy of only about 35–65%, depending on the version of ChatGPT used and whether the introduction had been generated from the title or the abstract of the paper. A text-classifier tool produced by OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, also performed poorly — it was able to spot AI-written introductions with an accuracy of around 10–55%.

The new ChatGPT catcher even performed well with introductions from journals it wasn’t trained on, and it caught AI text that was created from a variety of prompts, including one aimed to confuse AI detectors. However, the system is highly specialized for scientific journal articles. When presented with real articles from university newspapers, it failed to recognize them as being written by humans.

Wider issues

What the authors are doing is “something fascinating,” says Debora Weber-Wulff, a computer scientist who studies academic plagiarism at the HTW Berlin University of Applied Sciences. Many existing tools try to determine authorship by searching for the predictive text patterns of AI-generated writing rather than by looking at features of writing style, she says. “I’d never thought of using stylometrics on ChatGPT.”

But Weber-Wulff points out that there are other issues driving the use of ChatGPT in academia. Many researchers are under pressure to quickly churn out papers, she notes, or they might not see the process of writing a paper as an important part of science. AI-detection tools will not address these issues, and should not be seen as “a magic software solution to a social problem.”

This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on January 27 2023.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

McKenzie Prillaman  is a science journalist based in Washington, DC. She earned her master's degree from the  UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Program  and was a news intern at  Nature .

Recent Articles by McKenzie Prillaman

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• Heralded Alzheimer's Drug Works, but Safety Concerns Loom
• Alzheimer's Drug Slows Mental Decline in Trial--But Is It a Breakthrough?

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New York Times Writer Resigns After Signing Letter Protesting the Israel-Gaza War

The writer, Jazmine Hughes, who has won awards for her work, had signed another letter of protest this year.

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By Katie Robertson

Jazmine Hughes, an award-winning New York Times Magazine staff writer, resigned from the publication on Friday after she violated the newsroom’s policies by signing a letter that voiced support for Palestinians and protested Israel’s siege in Gaza.

Jake Silverstein, the editor of The New York Times Magazine, announced Ms. Hughes’s resignation in an email to staff members on Friday evening.

“While I respect that she has strong convictions, this was a clear violation of The Times’s policy on public protest,” Mr. Silverstein wrote. “This policy, which I fully support, is an important part of our commitment to independence.”

Mr. Silverstein said Ms. Hughes had previously violated the policy by signing another public letter this year. That letter, which was also signed by other contributors to The Times, protested the newspaper’s reporting on transgender issues.

“She and I discussed that her desire to stake out this kind of public position and join in public protests isn’t compatible with being a journalist at The Times, and we both came to the conclusion that she should resign,” Mr. Silverstein wrote in his note on Friday.

Ms. Hughes declined to comment. A Times spokeswoman had no further comment.

Ms. Hughes joined The Times in 2015 and worked as an editor and writer for the magazine. In 2020, she won an American Society of Magazine Editors Next award for journalists under 30. This year, she won a National Magazine Award for profile writing, for articles on Viola Davis and Whoopi Goldberg.

The petition Ms. Hughes signed about the Israel-Hamas war was published online last week by a group called Writers Against the War on Gaza. The group, which describes itself as “an ad hoc coalition committed to solidarity and the horizon of liberation for the Palestinian people,” denounced what it described as Israel’s “eliminationist assault” on Palestinians as well as the deaths of journalists reporting on the war. It was signed by hundreds of people, including other well-known journalists and authors.

“We stand firmly by Gaza’s people,” the letter said.

On Friday, a contributing writer at the magazine who had also signed the letter, Jamie Lauren Keiles, said in a post on X that he would no longer contribute to the publication. He said it was “a personal decision about what kind of work I want to be able to do.”

Katie Robertson covers the media industry for The Times. Email:  [email protected]   More about Katie Robertson

Our Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War

Blinken in the Middle East: Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, made unannounced visits to the West Bank and Iraq . ​​Blinken is in the region working to prevent Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip from spreading .

Explosion in Al Maghazi: An explosion in the densely populated part of central Gaza destroyed several buildings and appeared to have killed and wounded many people, photos and videos from the scene showed . The Gazan Health Ministry blamed an Israeli airstrike.

A Quiet Push: The Israeli government has privately pushed for large numbers of Gazans to move to Egypt , diplomats say — fueling Palestinian fears that Israel is using the war to permanently displace the more than two million people living in Gaza.

A New Phase in the Conflict: Days after Israeli troops poured into Gaza, Israeli military officials say they have made steady gains against Hamas. But the ground operation is entering a perilous stage , with Israeli soldiers advancing in an urban landscape  that is honeycombed with tunnels and home to many Palestinians.

Hostages: Israel has said there are two main goals in the war: Destroy Hamas and free the hostages  held in Gaza. But are those goals compatible ?

The Conflict’s   Global  Reach

Social Media: Amid angry outpourings and even personal attacks, people are increasingly facing pressure to post about the Israel-Hamas war . The social networks, meanwhile, are being accused  of spreading misinformation  and hate speech.

A Worldwide War of Words: Iran, Russia and, to a lesser degree, China are using state and social media  to support Hamas and undercut Israel, while denigrating Israel’s principal ally, the United States.

Dagestan Riot:  A New York Times analysis of Telegram posts shows how a false rumor about the resettlement of Israelis in Dagestan that led to an antisemitic riot at an airport was shared online for longer and more widely than previously reported .

Two-State Solution: The idea of Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side in their own sovereign countries is getting a new hearing  in foreign-policy circles , with diplomats and analysts saying that the war may breathe new life into it.

Iran: For more than four decades, Iran’s rulers have pledged to destroy Israel. Now Tehran faces a dilemma , weighing how it and its proxy militias should respond to the invasion of Gaza at the risk of igniting a broader regional war.

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Geena Rocero Is Writing Her Truth

By Raquel Willis

Photography by Agata Serge

The way Geena Rocero stares down a camera is captivating. Here, at Silverlens, a gallery in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, she challenges its gaze with the kind of merciless confidence that comes only after nearly two decades of modeling. With each click, the elegant frame of her face tilts, her lithe limbs flick, and her eyes steady on the target. Then, as soon as photographer Agata Serge breaks to take stock of the images gathered, Rocero comes back down to the mortal realm to be with the rest of us.

“It’s about little movements,” says Rocero, who is—when she’s not in front of the camera—also a transgender rights advocate and film producer.

If I had just walked in, I might’ve thought Geena Rocero , 40, was simply a muse at the center of “ Remains of Surface ,” the current exhibition featuring noted Filipino American artists Leo Valledor and Carlos Villa. But nothing about Rocero is passive. In fact, it was she who adamantly requested New York’s first-ever Filipino-owned gallery as the site for this shoot because, for her, intentionality is key.

This year Rocero released her groundbreaking memoir, Horse Barbie . The book recounts her rise from pageant queen in the Philippines to a laudable career in fashion and advocacy in the United States. It also reveals the process behind her decision to share her trans identity publicly. But as much as it’s autobiographical, Horse Barbie is also an exploration of some of the most universal themes of womanhood: belonging, confidence, and love.

Horse Barbie ’s publication was a balm as a years-long wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation crested in 2023. More than 500 pieces of legislation have been introduced at the state level in the US, many targeting trans people and youth, specifically. There have been attacks on everything from health care access and drag performance to adults simply affirming queer and trans youth. Given the stakes, it’s no wonder that Rocero’s memoir has been received with such enthusiasm. She quite literally models what triumph can look like.

The book’s release was met with critical acclaim. Rocero was recognized by Gold House and them for her literary contributions. On a visit to the White House, she presented copies to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who has kept the book in her office. The New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino called Horse Barbie “vivid, hilarious, [and] exhilarating.”

“I made a very conscious decision on how I wanted to communicate this story,” Rocero tells me when we meet for lunch not long after her shoot. “I said clearly to my editors, team, and book agent, ‘I want this to serve the artist and the storyteller in me.’ [And] I feel like I've sprinkled the world with my world, with my way of thinking, with my magical sense of things.”

Now, months after its release, she feels achievement and relief not unlike the incredibly public moment in 2014 that shifted her life’s trajectory. It was on a TED stage in Vancouver, where she audaciously shared her trans identity publicly for the first time after years of modeling under the radar.

“I felt like I was freeing myself to be fully as I am,” she told Glamour at the time.

In that moment Rocero remixed her Filipina heritage and queer pride into a force for collective transformation. And now she’s done it again.

Rocero’s early life in the Philippines was humble , but she was surrounded with tremendous love from the beginning. Her origin family, including her mother, father, and siblings, mostly accepted her gender nonconformity from a young age. Still, her childhood was marred by abuse and violence that partially influenced her mother to immigrate to San Francisco—Rocero and the rest of her nuclear family remained in the Philippines. The absence took a toll on 11-year-old Geena, but she and her mother stayed close through long-distance calls. And, in time, she found a chosen family in the Filipino trans pageant system.

In Horse Barbie , Rocero exalts Tigerlily Garcia Temporosa, the mentor and community mother who encouraged her to embrace not just her gender but also the derogatory remarks made about her “equine” neck and limbs. That advice gave birth to the nickname “Horse Barbie“ and catapulted Rocero into top-billing status on the competition circuit.

“I became the thoroughbred,” Rocero says with a chuckle. “It's a whimsical thing for me to think about.”

Temporosa and Rocero were determined to succeed despite a culture that didn’t always cherish Rocero’s beauty, particularly her more deeply melanated skin. Nevertheless, she experienced a spectacular ascent fueled by her charisma and natural star quality. She dominated nearly every stage she stepped onto.

“At 15 years old she took the highest titles here in the national pageant,” Temporosa says. “I [was] so proud and so happy. A lot of good transgender [competitors] wanted me to handle them, at that time, with Geena rising as a promising star.”

Then, just as Rocero’s pageant career reached its apex, her mother invited her to move to the United States. At the time Rocero had been contemplating a move to Japan. But her mother pressed with an appeal, telling her that she’d be able to legally change her name and gender marker to read female. It represented an opportunity unavailable to trans people in the Philippines to date . She decided to take a leap.

“Despite the ubiquity of government-organized trans pageants in the Philippines, trans people themselves are not politically recognized,” Rocero writes in Horse Barbie . “We are culturally visible but legally erased. No amount of pageant glory can make up for the fact that our government still doesn’t see and treat trans people as full citizens able to participate in society as we truly are.”

Just before Rocero settled in San Francisco, her father suffered back-to-back strokes. He died in 2001, a loss that marked both an end and a beginning to chapters of her life.

“I think this book's my way to process [his life],” she says. “He truly influenced me and gave me an early freedom. It’s my version of closure.”

When Rocero returns in the second look of the day, she’s dressed in a matching taupe trench and shirt set. It’s a far cry from her first job in the States: a gig at a Macy’s cosmetics counter.

San Francisco, at the turn of the millennium, offered Rocero unimaginable access to her transition goals. Her mother was her coconspirator throughout the process, from helping her choose her new name to being at her side during a gender affirmation surgery. But with the promise of a different life, she grew increasingly eager to live without having to wear her identity on her sleeve. She’d been out in the Philippines. Not so much anymore.

“Transness was hypervisible [in the Philippines] in a way that it wasn’t in the United States of 2003,” Rocero writes. “And so for our entire community of trans Filipinas in San Francisco, wa buking [to be unclockable] was a common goal: To be unclockable was to ascend to the highest levels of affirmation that American society had to offer. It was a measurement of how far we all had come from a place where everyone knew our T.”

While working at Macy’s, she met a customer—herself a professional model—who suggested that her aesthetic would help her excel in the industry. What started in San Francisco led her to New York, where Rocero experienced both the espionage-tinged fear of having her transness revealed and her career cut short, and also genuine, thrilling fun.

“When I was doing the book tour, people would ask me about my time modeling,” Rocero says. “Yes, it was difficult. Yes, I was paranoid. The other side of that is I was really living my life, playful, sensual, sleeping with whoever I want. You know, the hottest people that I know. People were really surprised how much I talked about pleasure.”

Part of what made Horse Barbie such a success is the same quality that makes Rocero so magnetic in person: She holds nothing back. The book chronicles fleeting and consequential loves throughout her life. But after a period of “casual, carefree, and cathartic” encounters with various men, she met her forever love, Norman. She’s protective of this relationship—that continues today—but she shares that, as their connection grew, she was inspired to dive deeper into her history. She began to explore her Austronesian origins and experimented with psychedelics. It was at Burning Man, of all places, where she encountered her father’s spirit, reenvisioned her life and career, and considered embracing her identity publicly.

“That was the first inclination that I would come out, the first seedling,” she tells me now. “One of the Burning Man principles is radical inclusion. I felt people were living it and I wanted to too.”

Now, more than a decade later, Rocero is a beloved media figure and social justice heroine. She has accrued numerous accolades, including becoming the first trans woman ambassador for Miss Universe Nepal and the first trans Asian Pacific Islander woman to be named a Playboy Playmate of the Year. She’s also advocated for trans rights at the White House, the United Nations, and the World Economic Forum, and in her native Philippines.

Actor Gabrielle Union-Wade isn’t surprised to see Rocero’s continuous climb. As stepmother to one of the most high-profile trans teenagers, Zaya Wade, she intimately knows the necessity of possibility models like Rocero.

“When I first met Geena, I was blown away by her beauty, her intelligence, and her graceful presence,” Wade-Union says. “Her fierce and unrelenting activism in the face of mounting adversity is incredibly inspiring to me and my entire family. Knowing that there are angels on earth like Geena, fighting for real equality and change, is so necessary. She provides a voice for the voiceless and the road map for others to follow her lead.”

To fashion designer Prabal Gurung, Rocero represents “several communities that have been unseen.” She is, he continues, “so fully aware of the space she occupies and the relationships she has within the world.”

Back in the Philippines, Rocero’s impact is felt as well. There’s a whole generation of trans girls who’ve come up through the pageant system with bolder ambitions thanks to her example. One is Mela Habijan, who embarked on a successful journey and media career shortly after embracing her identity several years ago.

“Looking for a role model that will allow me and other trans girls to see a reflection of us was not available up until we saw a glimpse and pieces of Geena Rocero,” Habijan says. “We had the same profile. She's a pageant queen. That, in itself, was so powerful on my end because I found an affinity with the queen sister like her.”

In Horse Barbie , Rocero recalls a pivotal pageant moment when she and her competitors were caught in a rainstorm. While the other candidates worried about the mud flow surrounding them and its impact on their routines, Rocero flipped the challenge into an opportunity to wow the judges.

“I walked out in my red evening gown,” she writes, “but instead of trying to avoid all the rain and mud, I embraced the messiness instead, flinging the trail of my gown to the judges’ delight as I walked back and forth in front of the stage. The audience applauded my ingenuity. Never had they seen a performance that was so down-to-earth—literally.”

That fearless persona is still something she can summon on command. The afternoon of this shoot, rain pounds the streets of Manhattan, but Rocero is determined to deliver. Despite the downpour, she hits the sidewalk. No matter the career she’s built and the heights she’s reached, she will always know how to turn life’s elements, especially struggle, into art.

These days Rocero is focused on a slate of projects she's developing with producers, and her next scripted project, which she is writing and directing. Rocero yearns to produce work that encourages young trans people amid the current waves of restrictive legislation in the States and the Philippines, which still lacks legal recognition for trans people.

These days Rocero is focused on Gender Proud , a media production company that elevates stories about trans and gender-nonconforming people. She founded it in 2014, right around the time of that game-changing TED appearance, and has a slate of top-secret projects on the horizon. Rocero yearns to produce work that encourages young trans people amid the current waves of restrictive legislation in the States and the Philippines, which still lacks legal recognition for trans people.

“I hope the next generation will really see art, how powerful it is, how liberating spiritually it is. Or at least find liberation in that expression,” she says. “It's given me power, at least in these things that I think about in my head of what I want to do. I want them to heal.”

Photographed by Agata Serge Styling: LJ Perez Hair: Takuya Yamaguchi Makeup: Stevie Huynh Location: Silverlens Gallery

Silverlens is an international gallery with locations in both Manila and New York. Through its artist representation, institutional partnerships, art consultancy, and exhibition programming including art fairs and gallery collaborations, Silverlens aims to place its artists within the broader framework of the contemporary art dialogue.

Read all the Glamour 2023 Woman of the Year profiles here :

Millie Bobby Brown America Ferrera Mary J. Blige Quinta Bunson Brooke Shields Daring to Disrupt Selma Blair

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The Christian Nationalism of Speaker Mike Johnson

I n his first day as the new Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Mike Johnson (R-LA) wasted no time in using sweeping religious rhetoric to magnify this political moment. While addressing his colleagues he shared how, “I don’t believe there are any coincidences. I believe that scripture, the Bible, is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority, he raised up each of you, all of us. And I believe that God has ordained and allowed us to be brought here to this specific moment and time.”

While what Speaker Johnson believes God ordained him to do will become clear in the coming weeks and months, his prior work, words, and writing give several clues. Although he has never called himself a Christian Nationalist nor publicly embraced the term as other House Reps have done , each example points to the strong embrace of the ethos of Christian nationalism —a cultural framework that advocates for a particular expression of Christianity to be fused with American civic life, with the government vigorously promoting and preserving this version of Christianity as the principal and undisputed cultural framework.

Speaker Johnson has explicitly embraced the idea that the U.S. was founded upon particular Christian principles, in 2016 claiming, “ You know, we don’t live in a democracy . . . It’s a constitutional republic. And the founders set that up because they followed the biblical admonition on what a civil society is supposed to look like.”

In the same interview, he reiterated his belief that the separation of church and state is not a constitutional principle. “ Over the last 60 or 70 years our generation has been convinced that there is a separation of church and state . . . most people think that is part of the Constitution, but it’s not.” And in 2022, he stated “The founders wanted to protect the church from an encroaching state, not the other way around.” Johnson, and those he has famously represented , insist the United States is a nation with “ Judeo-Christian roots” at which “secular forces are chipping away.”

Having studied Christian nationalism for over a decade, we find it is consistently made up of several different elements. When we say Speaker Johnson is a Christian nationalist, we mean he provides a near-perfect example for each element.

Traditionalist Social Arrangements

First, Christian nationalism strongly favors traditionalist social relationships and hierarchies. This ideal society revolves around patriarchy , heterosexual marriage , and pronatalism . Consequently, certain citizens and family arrangements should have easy access to various civil rights and liberties, while others should be denied access.

As an attorney working for the Alliance Defense Fund, now known as Alliance Defending Freedom (founded by leaders with similar Christian nationalist commitments, like James Dobson , D. James Kennedy , and Bill Bright ), Speaker Johnson opposed the decriminalization of homosexual activity through Lawrence v. Texas in 2003 and in 2004 proposed banning same-sex marriage.

He argued how both will “de-emphasize the importance of traditional marriage to society, weaken it, and place our entire democratic system in jeopardy by eroding its foundation,” and that “experts project that homosexual marriage is the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic.”

Mike Johnson has sponsored multiple bills aimed at a nationwide ban on abortion, which he once publicly blamed for school shootings. He also once structured opposition to Roe v. Wade in terms of how it—in his view—limited the number of able-bodied workers in the economy, which fundamentally weakens the government’s ability to fund various social programs.

Like a car engineered to run on gasoline, Johnson sees our nation—and any nation for that matter—only running properly on the social arrangements elevated in the conservative Anglo Protestant tradition. Johnson’s politics are those that formally privilege gender traditionalism and heterosexuality as the national ideal.

Authoritarian Social Control

Second, Christian nationalism adheres to a desire for strong leaders who through the threat of violence, or actual violence, defend the preferred social arrangements and hierarchies. This includes setting aside the results of free and fair elections to ensure a chosen leader remains in power. Americans who embrace Christian nationalism are more likely to support anti-democratic tactics and approve of political violence if an election does not return favorable results.

Mike Johnson was a central figure in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, joining 146 other Republicans in Congress. Repeating debunked claims about “rigged” Dominion voting machines , Johnson went so far as to author an amicus brief for a case where Texas moved to have swing-state results thrown out. His consistent efforts to deny and overturn the 2020 election earned him the nickname “ MAGA Mike ” from fellow lawmakers.

Speaker Johnson exemplifies this aspect of Christian nationalism disregarding the values of democracy to instead embrace any means through which political power remains in the “right” hands. And this comfort with setting aside democratic ideals aligns with another element of Christian nationalism.

Ethno-Racial Boundaries

Third, Christian nationalism is characterized by strong ethno-racial boundaries around national identity , civic participation , and social belonging . In fact, scholars often call the ideology white Christian nationalism for this very reason. The ideal American is generally understood to be a natural-born Anglo Protestant. It is this group who created the U.S., and it is this group who should remain central to its cultural identity and political leadership.

Speaker Johnson has supported legislation that would sooth the conscience and protect the authority of such Americans, such as laws that limit teaching on race-related topics within public schools, like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. Johnson has also advanced legislation that would increase the burden on undocumented immigrants seeking asylum.

Within the Christian nationalist vision, our research shows, ethnic diversity is not our national strength, but a hindrance . And so there must be barriers around who gets to enjoy those benefits and participate in the civil sphere. Americans who embrace Christian nationalism can simultaneously claim Christian ideals of caring for those less fortunate while objecting to the nation serving various populations in need of refuge.

Populism and Conspiratorial thinking

A final element of Christian nationalism is a populist impulse that creates space for Americans to embrace feelings of victimization —that certain “elites” are trying to persecute them—which lends itself to adopting more conspiratorial thinking that includes belief in anti-vaccine myths , QAnon, and antisemitic tropes .

In addition to repeatedly elevating Trump’s conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, Johnson has also often repeated the “Great Replacement Theory,” that Democrats are bringing in immigrants to replace natural born citizens and secure Democratic votes. This is the core of rightwing populist thinking, defending “real Americans” from elites and outsiders corrupting our culture and politics. It is also the core of Christian nationalism.

It is critical to recognize the influence of Christian nationalism on Mike Johnson’s vision for the U.S.. “Christian nationalism” isn’t a political slur. It’s a term that accurately describes an ideology that is antithetical to a stable, multiracial, and liberal democracy—an ideology clearly guiding the now-ranking Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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'New York Times' Magazine Writer Jazmine Hughes Resigns Over Her Signing Letter On War

• by Ray Schultz , November 4, 2023

Heated debate about the Israel-Hamas war has claimed another journalistic job. 

Jazmine Hughes resigned as a staff writer on the New York Times Magazine on Friday over her signing a letter in support of Palestinians and protesting Israel’s siege, the Times writes. 

“While I respect that she has strong convictions, this was a clear violation of The Times’s policy on public protest,” wrote Jake Silverstein, the editor of The New York Times Magazine , in an email to staff members on Friday.

Silverstein added, “This policy, which I fully support, is an important part of our commitment to independence.”

The letter was posted by a group called Writers Against the War on Gaza.

Silverstein continued, “She and I discussed that her desire to stake out this kind of public position and join in public protests isn’t compatible with being a journalist at The Times , and we both came to the conclusion that she should resign.”

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Hughes had also violated the policy earlier this year by signing a letter protesting the Times’ reporting on transgender issues, the Times writes. 

Jamie Lauren Keiles, a contributing writer at the magazine, who had also signed the letter on the war, said on X that he would no longer write for the publication.

Hughes won a National Magazine Award for profile writing this year for her articles on Viola Davis and Whoopi Goldberg.

In October, David Velasco was fired as editor in chief of  Artforum  for signing an open letter commenting on the Israel-Hamas war. 

The Oct. 19 letter was “shared on  Artforum ’s website and social platforms without our, or the requisite senior members of the editorial team’s, prior knowledge,” publishers Danielle McConnell and Kate Koza said in a post. “This was not consistent with  Artforum ’s editorial process.”

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