Software package

Magazine publishing package

An issue-based publishing platform with contributor commissioning, long-form article templates, subscription and single-issue sales, digital issue delivery and a browsable back-issue archive, ready to configure around your title.

Custom build Concept demo

Get a quote for this package

Who it is for

Built for

A good fit

Consumer and trade magazines that publish on a fixed cadence, from a quarterly run by two people to a monthly with a dozen regular contributors and a subscriptions manager. It suits editors who think in issues and contents pages, art editors who want the web version to respect the layout they designed, subscriptions managers who need to know who is entitled to what, and contributors who want to file without emailing attachments.

Also worth knowing

It is less suited to daily news titles, which need a continuous desk queue and live coverage rather than an issue calendar, and to brand blogs that publish single posts with no issue structure. Both have their own packages. Titles whose subscribers are held in a fulfilment system that must remain the system of record should start with the custom service.

The operational problem it solves

How it runs, step by step

The editor opens the issue board on Monday morning.

The June issue shows its cover, print date and twelve article slots.
Nine have copy filed; two are with the editor; one contributor has not filed and the slot is amber.
The editor opens a filed feature, trims it, marks it edited, and the art editor is notified to set the pull quotes and chapter breaks in the long-form template.
Images arrive from the contributor with credits already attached, and the focal point is set once so the cover crop and the article header both work on a phone.

On Wednesday the subscriptions manager checks the entitlement list: print-plus-digital subscribers, digital-only subscribers and the three single-issue purchases from last week.

On the publish date the issue goes live in one action.
The contents page on the website mirrors the printed one, the archive gains a new cover, and every entitled subscriber receives the page-flip link for the issue.
A reader who follows the gardening section gets the gardening newsletter segment with the three relevant features.
Someone searching for an article from four years ago finds it in the back-issue browser rather than asking the office for a scan.

Features

What the package does

The package is arranged as modules that follow the issue cycle: planning and commissioning, editing and layout, publishing and delivery, and the subscriber and archive side. Each module below lists what it does; the comparison table shows which package variant includes it.

Content and editorial

Issues with cover and contentsEach issue has its own cover, contents list, print date and publish date, so the site mirrors the magazine you put out.
Long-form article templateFeatures read well with pull quotes and chapter breaks that help readers move through a long piece.
Contributor profilesWriters, photographers and illustrators each get a page listing their pieces across issues.
Categories, tags, authors and seriesGroup articles by subject, author or running series so readers can follow what interests them.
Image sets with focal point and creditsPhotography is resized for every screen, cropped around a focal point and shown with captions and credits.

Workflow and tasks

Commissioning and filed-copy trackingCommission pieces from contributors and follow each one from brief to filed copy without a separate spreadsheet.
Revisions, scheduling and embargoKeep a history of edits, and schedule or embargo a piece so it goes live with the issue.

Listings and search

Back-issue archive browsingReaders can browse earlier issues by date and open their contents, keeping older editorial work discoverable.

Integrations

Full-page caching, feeds and sitemapPages are served from cache, with feeds and a sitemap generated from published pieces.
Old-URL migration with redirect importImport old addresses so existing links and search results continue to reach the right article.

Catalogue and checkout

Subscription and single-issue salesSell subscriptions and individual issues from the site, and deliver a purchased issue as a PDF or a page-flip link.

Messaging and notifications

Newsletter segments by interestGroup newsletter recipients by the subjects they choose, so each sees the coverage that matters to them.

Package variants compared

Website
Custom Platform

Which features each package variant includes
Feature	Website	Custom Platform
Issues with cover and contents	Included	Included
Commissioning and filed-copy tracking	Included	Included
Long-form article template	Included	Included
Contributor profiles	Included	Included
Revisions, scheduling and embargo	Included	Included
Categories, tags, authors and series	Included	Included
Image sets with focal point and credits	Included	Included
Back-issue archive browsing	Included	Included
Full-page caching, feeds and sitemap	Included	Included
Old-URL migration with redirect import	Included	Included
Subscription and single-issue sales	Not in this variant	Optional
Newsletter segments by interest	Optional	Optional

Roles and permissions

Who does what

Editor
- Create issues with cover, contents and print date
- Commission articles to contributors and track filed copy
- Edit with revision history and mark articles ready
- Publish an issue in one action and schedule features
Art editor
- Set pull quotes, chapters and sidebars in the long-form template
- Manage image crops, focal points, captions and credits
- Approve the visual build of an issue before publication
Contributor
- See their commissions and briefs
- File copy and images against a slot
- Maintain their contributor profile
- See the status of their pieces
Subscriptions manager
- See subscribers by tier and entitlement
- Handle renewals, upgrades and single-issue purchases
- Trigger or resend digital issue delivery
- Export subscriber lists for the mailing house
Subscriber
- Read the issues they are entitled to online or as a download
- Browse the back-issue archive
- Manage their subscription and newsletter interests

Example screen

Concept demo

Concept demo of the magazine issue board showing a cover, article slots with status markers and the issue dates.

The issue board as the editor sees it: the June cover, the contents list with each slot showing commissioned, filed, edited or ready, and the print and publish dates at the top.

Scope and options

What is included and what is extra

In the base package

Issue model with cover, contents, print date and publish date
Commissioning and contributor workflow with filed-copy tracking
Long-form article template with pull quotes and chapters
Contributor profiles
Revision history, scheduled publishing and embargo
Categories, tags, authors and series
Media processing with responsive image sets, focal point, captions and credits
Back-issue archive browsing
Full-page caching, feeds and sitemap
Old-URL migration with redirect import

Common add-ons

Subscription and single-issue sales
Digital issue delivery by PDF or page-flip link
Newsletter segments by interest
Advert positions per template with house-ad fallback

Needs custom work

Two-way sync with a fulfilment house
Import of very large or multi-source back-issue archives
Bespoke reporting on subscriber behaviour

See the custom development service

Ownership, maintenance and pricing

After the build

Deployment and ownership

The package runs on your hosting or on hosting we manage, as recorded in the proposal and changeable later. You own the code and your content in either case. Issues, articles, images, contributor records and subscriber data can be exported in standard formats at any time, and the platform can be moved to another provider.

Maintenance

Maintenance is optional and scoped separately. When taken, it covers security updates to the platform and its dependencies, monitoring of issue delivery and payment callbacks, backups of the archive and media, and a monthly window for small configuration changes such as a new section, a new subscription tier or a template tweak. Larger changes are quoted as change requests.

Pricing model

Priced per proposal.

The package is sold as a one-off setup and customisation with optional monthly maintenance and hosting as separate lines. The setup figure depends on issues per year, the number of contributors, the subscription add-ons chosen, the back-issue volume to import and whether you host it yourself. Recurring lines are stated separately in the proposal.

Software package

Custom build Concept demo

Variants

Issue model with cover, contents, print date and publish date
Commissioning and contributor workflow with filed-copy tracking
Long-form article template with pull quotes and chapters
Contributor profiles

Priced per proposal. A written proposal is the only binding figure.

Get a quote for this package Prefer a fully custom build?

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Can an article appear in more than one issue?

Yes. An article belongs to one or more issues, so a special edition can reuse a feature with its original date intact, and the archive shows it under each issue it appeared in.

How do subscribers receive a digital issue?

On the publish date the package releases the issue to every entitled subscriber by email with a PDF or page-flip link, and the issue appears in their account. The subscriptions manager can resend to anyone who missed it.

Can we sell a single issue to someone who is not a subscriber?

With the sales add-on, yes. Single-issue purchases run through the orders engine and grant access to that issue only.

Do contributors see other contributors' work?

No. A contributor sees only their own commissions, briefs and filed pieces. Editors and the art editor see the whole issue.

Is this a finished product I can see running?

Not yet. The readiness badge shows the real state: the package is a custom build assembled from our editorial, membership and orders modules for each title, and the example on this page is a labelled concept demo rather than a live magazine.

What if our subscriber records live with a fulfilment house?

A one-off import works within the package. Keeping the fulfilment house as the live system of record with changes flowing both ways is custom work, covered by the custom magazine website service.

Get a quote for Magazine publishing package

Tell us about your locations, the people who will use it and the add-ons you need. We reply with a clear, competitive proposal.