Editor’s Diary: It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

I appreciate that the title of this Editor’s Diary may make some people groan!

Christmas is still ages away, right? Plenty of time to get organised.

Well, not in the world of producing magazines!

At the moment we’re well into our Christmas production schedule. This is a hectic time of year, but essential.

Over a period of five weeks, we have to produce an issue of the “Friend” in four days instead of five. And we do it without bringing in any extra help!

It can get quite stressful at times. So why do we do it?

There are several reasons.

One is to make it possible for the editorial team to take a few days off over Christmas and New Year. We love our jobs, but we like to celebrate the season, too!

Another is to allow the hard-working folk who print and distribute our magazines to take a festive break, too. Print deadlines are brought forward to keep everything running smoothly.

And a third reason is to give us a bit of extra time to focus on our fabulous festive bumper issues. We’ll have two this year, dated December 4 and December 18. With 144 pages in each, there’s a lot of planning, writing and checking to do!

Of course, it’s already been Christmas for the “Friend” team twice this year so far.

First, when we were producing our amazing “The Magic Of Christmas” publication.

And second, when we put together our hugely popular Christmas Special (No. 217) with its exclusive festive CD. It goes on sale on November 10, so not long to wait now!

Before we get to December 25 itself, I’ll be having another taste of Christmas when I attend our Warner Leisure holiday from December 13-17.

I’m really looking forward to returning to Cricket St Thomas — and to meeting “Friend” readers in person once more!

For more from Angela’s Editor’s Diary, click the tag below.