Welcome to the Association for Church Editors
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© Copyright 2014 -
19th May 2017
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Now comes the important bit. You will need to install page flipping software. Bob suggests KviSoft Flipbook Maker which is available at a cost of £71. That is a one-
Finally do you need any technical knowledge? Bob reckons it’s minimal, which is good news. And he is willing to help you if necessary.
Use the website
Our webmaster, Keith Wood, gave us a short talk before lunch about the website and how it helps to fulfil our need for communications and the availability of knowledge.
Members are encouraged to visit the website frequently. Keith would welcome any contributions that he can use to spread advice on the editing and production of our church magazines.
Annual General Meeting
The annual general meeting was held after lunch. It took our Chairman, John Farrow, just twelve minutes to get through. Minutes of last year’s meeting were duly approved. Alan Rickards, our Treasurer, briefly explained the important points in the accounts, which were then accepted. Nominations, duly proposed and seconded, had been received for the Executive Committee and the members were duly elected.
Executive Committee
2015 – 2016
- Chairman: John Farrow
- Vice Chairman: Sally Churchus
- Minutes Secretary: Barbara Oates
- Treasurer and Membership Officer: Alan Rickards
- Webmaster: Keith Wood
- Committee members: Angela Price and Hilary Barrett
Please note the date for 2016 meeting is currently planned for Saturday 14th May
The ACE Annual Meeting
held at Central Hall, Westminster
on Saturday 9th May 2015
Paul Handley tells us how to edit our magazines
At 11 o’clock John Farrow opened the meeting. As he did so the bells of Westminster Abbey, just across the road, rang out in celebration of Victory in Europe, seventy years previously.
He introduced Paul Handley, editor of Church Times and we set off on a procession of hints and tips on editing a magazine. Not only is Paul well versed in editing, having spent many years on Church Times, his personal background and love of the Christian life showed us how our own Christian lifestyle should play an important role in editing our church magazines.
Paul is supported by a team, all of whom are versed in the ways in which material for Church Times is to be edited to ensure consistency. This spreads also into the design of the magazine and Paul showed us how, when he took over the editorship he had suggested a number of design changes which nevertheless still gave the readership a feeling that it was still the same magazine.
More recently he has led a significant change into the use of colour and particular the use of a colour photograph, usually of people, for the front cover. Even so, small changes still go on without affecting the overall style.
He then took an enthralled audience through a series of pointers relating to the realities of producing a magazine, whether it be a straightforward church magazine or something much more complex and issued more frequently like Church Times. It is amazing how similar the thought patterns should be if we are to produce a worthwhile magazine every time we sit down at our computer.
Here’s his list of main headings:
- Purpose: why a magazine at all?
- Politics: who is in charge
- Marketing
- Website questions
- Design: layout
- Design
- Photographs
- Contents
- House style
His explanations of why we need to think about all these points was quite
fascinating and thought provoking. How many of us really thought there was so much we, and our team needed to take on board.
Working as a team was given a special emphasis and is something we all need to think about, especially as the editor is really the leading light. How vital is the team? Putting it simply, Paul told us how vital it is to use the team to avoid personal attitudes towards content and the way articles are written and presented.
Use your team properly and you can improve the content and appearance of your magazine to the benefit of your church and its congregation.
Flip the pages of your magazine
Have you seen those magazines that are published on the web and every time you click on the bottom corner the page turns automatically, with a little sound just like when you turn the page of a real magazine.
Bob Barrett, committee member Hilary’s husband, gave us an interesting introduction into how you can create this effect for your own magazine. It’s a good way pf promoting a more professional image for your magazine. It is surprisingly simple to do.
When you decide to put your magazine onto a website, you need to make a positive decision as to what content you will include and what you will delete, remembering that the Internet will take your magazine to a much wider audience, possibly world wide. Think carefully.
You will need to transfer your magazine into a pdf format file. You will need web space, possibly on your church website, possibly in association with a friendly advertiser or, lastly, on your own website. 
