How magazine self publishing is empowering for K-12 students in a distance learning world

With schools reopening, our students encounter the same problems that plague the rest of the world in this pandemic:

• a fragmented community
• the loss of traditional creative and social outlets
• obstacles to work and education generated by remote workplaces and distance learning

In response, K-12 teachers and administrators have dedicated themselves to ensuring their pupils continue to develop critical skills, a mission in which magazine self-publishing may seem a luxury. It isn’t. It’s a solution. 

In addition to teaching important skills, magazine self-publishing empowers students by giving them a forum and the tools to express themselves. It offers schools and communities a way to reconnect in this frightening time. 

The partnership of Adobe, aPrintis, and RR Donnelly has generated a K-12 school self-publishing model for distance learning. This model is both surprisingly easy and surprisingly affordable. We address new and old stumbling blocks, providing students with valuable opportunities—and even a little healthy competition.

A Magazine For Every K-12 School

We believe that every high, middle, and elementary school deserves to have a magazine. Every student should feel that they can contribute to it. Every student—and every school—should be able to afford it. Students should be able to create from anywhere and should have the same level of access to help and resources.

Years of anti-media rhetoric in Washington have only heightened student interest in journalism, a field in which high school magazines have long served as the testing grounds. Compared to newspapers, magazines ensure greater content depth and reader satisfaction. The importance of their visual appeal increases still further when working with elementary and middle school students.

We help you to self-publish magazines by making gorgeous printing dramatically affordable, enabling full-community content collaboration, and facilitating fundraising for the publication.

Why? Because the benefits that student magazines provide make them a necessity.

Student Magazines Enable Creativity and Community

Student magazines afford students an expressive outlet and a stake in their community. They provide a forum for student-to-student conversation as well as engaging them in a greater dialogue with other members of their communities.

The attractive, physical product of a magazine makes a huge difference. Writers and other staff take personal satisfaction in having something concrete to show for their efforts. Speaking of one of her school’s magazines, a student at Palo Alto High School says,

“To actually hold a copy of your work and be able to show it to people and say, ‘Look, this is what we did,’ I feel like you can’t really replace that feeling.”

Palo Alto students also describe the difference that magazines make to readership. With so many alternatives competing for student attention, schools routinely struggle to attract online readers. In-hand distribution and the visual appeal of a colorful booklet guarantee engagement.

Students Learn Critical Skills Through Magazine Publishing

At every step of the process, working on student magazines gives students opportunities to grow as readers, writers, citizens, and future professionals. What follows is a partial list of the critical skills that students learn while working on school magazines.

• Long-form Reading and Writing
  • The last two decades have seen a sharp decline in the amount of time students devote to long-form reading and writing. School magazine publications allow students to compose longer articles and provide them with chances to read thoughtful pieces written by their peers. 
• Research/Critical Thinking/Journalism
  • The pandemic has intensified students’ engagement with local and international news, material that feels immediately relevant. 
  • Writing magazine articles grants students the license to explore and investigate their own communities. They learn to observe public opinion and hold leaders accountable. School magazines give students an incentive to develop their own ideas and then craft nuanced pieces about them. 
• Design/Creativity/Photography/Technology
  • Magazines allow for unprecedented creative freedom in terms of the color, fonts, images, structuring, and headlines of their articles. In addition to developing skills in photography and computer literacy, students can make headway in graphic design, using platforms such as Adobe Creative Cloud.
• Leadership/Teamwork/Project-Based Learning
  • The school magazine is the product of a team. Writers, editors, photographers, and graphic designers all must work together to create one cohesive publication. School magazines allow students to experience deadlines, responsibilities, and leadership in a professional environment.
• Entrepreneurship/Branding/Promotion
  • Students learn to advocate for a product in which they’re personally invested. The school magazine provides business- or entrepreneurial-minded students a chance to engage in marketing, fundraising, monetization, advertising, and distribution.

Showcase Your School’s Greatness

Proud principals, teachers, parents, and students routinely hold onto copies of school magazines and put them on display. These publications can demonstrate the amazing things that members of a school’s community do throughout the year. In troubled times, they give you a way to capture or reinvigorate school spirit and pride.

Don’t Believe Us? Listen to Them!

After all, our mission is to record and amplify student voices.

Every year, students at Palo Alto High publish seven different print magazine titles, each with multiple issues. Despite being in the center of the world’s tech Mecca, these students champion the importance of print and their school magazines. Here’s what they have to say.

What About Elementary and Middle School Students?

They can make magazines, too! They might need a bit more guidance from teachers or adult volunteers, but our little ones will surprise you with what they can accomplish once equipped with the right skills and tools. Magazines offer a great place for students of all ages and levels to exhibit their creativity in prose, poetry, and art. 

But How? A Self-Publishing Model For Distance Learning 

The perceived obstacles to magazine self-publishing were large enough in a pre-pandemic world. Then COVID-19 hit, forcing schools to deal with a fluid and complex situation in which distance learning must play a role.

In the midst of this crisis, aPrintis has partnered with Adobe and RR Donnelly to create opportunity, ensuring that every elementary, middle, and high school can have a magazine publishing outlet. 

Old Challenges, New Solutions 

A magazine makes sense for every school—big or small, public or private, STEM or arts. All it takes is a team of dedicated students and a faculty advisor to put them on the right track. But many find themselves deterred by misconceptions and incomplete information. Some of the biggest objections:

– “Kids don’t read print.”

We promise you’ll change your mind after publishing your first issue. Just ask Anne Albracht, the journalism advisor at Papillion La Vista High in Papillion, NE.

“The effect was truly electrifying. The professional look made the students take the publication more seriously–readers and creators alike…I love journalism, and I see this as a viable competitor in our students’ flashy, media-saturated worlds.”

– “It’s too expensive.”

We aim to make each copy cost $1 or less. As many schools have already discovered, we can offer you a superior product for less than what you’ve been paying for cheap newsprint. Chris Yarbrough from Northview High in Duluth, NC calls making the switch to a newsmagazine “the best creative decision we made”.

“We switched to aPrintis five years ago, and we couldn’t be happier. They are great to work with, and they have allowed us to really grow as a publication. We were able to get 1,000 issues of 32-pages full color for the same price we were 750 issues of 24-pages half color. Their quality is unmatched and the staff really works hard to help publications make a quality product. They are by far the cheapest magazine printer I found.”

Furthermore, aPrintis’s fundraising features make it easier for schools to pay for their publications. You can meet your budget goals by creating levels of and inviting participants in the following three types of fundraising: subscription, sponsorship, and ad sales.

– “It’s too hard to source content.”

aPrintis’s platform makes community content contribution easy. Whether you have a full-fledged journalism course or only a handful of students who meet after school, we’ve democratized content creation, allowing people to submit articles that can be easily imported into Adobe InDesign. 

COVID-19 and Distance-Learning

The pandemic has created new hurdles to magazine self-publishing. We’ve responded by jumping higher. 

In addition to the tools already described, our model includes remote access to certain Adobe products, affordable and prompt bulk or direct-to-home delivery, and school training and customer support. We’ll also help you to promote the magazine you’ve worked so hard to produce.

Sub-regional School Magazine Competition

We’re excited to launch this program with some friendly competition! In each of the nine subregions identified by the US Census, elementary, middle, and high schools will be eligible to win prizes and prestige. Just submit your magazine of 32 pages or more, with at least 100 copies ordered, by Thanksgiving week, November 20, 2020.

If you’re new to publishing, follow these three easy steps to participate:

• Step One
  • Identify students or staff trained in graphic design.
  • Invite article submissions from students via aPrintis.
• Step Two
  • Set up fundraising via aPrintis platform.
  • Design magazine using Adobe Creative Cloud and get content approval by administration. 
• Step 3
  • Confirm print readiness and send to print.
  • Submit copy for competition entry.

Create Your Own School Magazine Today!

Whether you’re an old pro or interested in getting started, contact us or call us at 1-800-510-6596. We’re here to help you throughout this process!