I am often asked by newsagents for advice on laying out magazine departments. The best advice I can give is to change, change and change some more. It all starts with a magazine relay as I outlined in a long article on the topic ages ago. That said, one thing we consistently do is to use key titles in a section blocked so as to draw attention to the section – as shown in the photo for our home and living section. Laying these four titles out in this way with double pocket allocation makes them the hero titles of the section. I’ve never been in a newsagency where such space can’t be found for this type of beacon branding.
The titles we place in this way change through the month depending on what’s just out and whether the title is well known to our shoppers.