Though actual tag line is ‘Collectively Conscious’ but the way this magazine goes, my title suits better.
By the way, I am talking about a monthly magazine – ‘Youth Eye’ which is recently
launched by Pragati Printing & Publications co. and as its title suggests it is targeting youth only! But, after going through initial issues of this magazine it very clear that the publisher & editor of this magazine have no idea how to create a magazine.The articles are so general in nature that they can appeal anybody (rather nobody)!
Content
Editorial structure of this magazine is extremely unplanned and unfocused. Though, in the first issue only, they have managed to convey their negligence of publication by giving very amateurish section names like – Youth Fashion, Youth Passion, Youth Hangouts, Youth Health, Youth
fitness, Youth social commitments…!!! God only knows whether these were section names or articles because they have got
disappeared in later issues while these were prominently shown on the cover of inaugural issue. I can’t understand if this magazine is for youth only, what could be the reason of putting the word ‘youth’ as a prefix to all the section names so explicitly.
While reviewing this magazine, third issue was already released in the market and shockingly all three issues have different structure for content representation! Price is changed (reduced from Rs.75 to Rs.60 precisely), paper size is changed, navigation is changed, back cover is carrying another option of front cover, size & placement of mast-head is changed… and top of that they call it ‘innovation’!
Selection of article also vague…it is not more than a compilation of randomly picked articles from here and there. That is why there is no consistency in writing or in presentation. Any article doesn’t leave a good taste after reading because of its pathetic copy desk work and poor
subbing. Advertorials are placed badly in the magazine so that it confuses the reader and this is harmful for the credibility of magazine as well.
Design
It is horrible! What all design
flaws are possible are there in this single issue. Even the basics of magazine design are not in place… grid is missing, alignments are bleeding, text is bleeding into the folio, pictures are pushing text columns, base lines are not locked, leading is varying, body copy typefaces are changing… and what not! Designers have tried all possible designs, layouts, colors, fonts at fullest. And I wonder how one editor can allow making blunders like
these (unless he himself has no clue of designing)!
All three issues have different layouts for inside pages. Even a single issue has variety of design errors. It clearly shows that design team has no style sheet or guide lines to follow. They did whatever came in their minds.
Selection of photograph is also bad and so is the level of illustrations.
Printing
Picture quality is very poor and so are the other design elements which are used across the magazine. Remaining is ruined by the pre-press team. Even on the cover photograph of Pooja Chopra for the inaugural issue is just spoiled by overdoing corrections.
Most of the photographs are not showing true skin colors that shows color correction work is done carelessly in the magazine. Printing is fine but because of poor pre-press it lacks in quality.
Product
Even for the production, cheap glossy paper is used for this magazine. Average 80-90 pages are just compilation of some irrelevant articles and random and lousy photographs. And paying Rs. 60 for this kind of substandard content is also not advisable.
To sum up all I can say that ‘youth eye’ is just an example of a magazine that has no editorial focus and is just launched without any magazine publishing knowledge. I don't think that youth can enjoy reading this or if they can get any benefit out of this.
