Fall continuing education opportunities at Ryerson's Chang School

While the 7-credit certificate program in Magazine and Website Publishing at Ryerson's Chang School has been discontinued, the courses offered definitely carry on. Tune up your skills and interests in the fall term, with courses starting the week of September 11 (204 starts September 9). Taught by some of the best instructors around. 

CDJN 112 - Magazine and Website Publishing

CDJN 113 - Magazine and Website Editing

CDJN 117 - Writing for Magazines and the Web

CDJN 118 - Advanced Feature Writing

CDJN 119 - Magazine Copy Editing

CDJN 122 - Advanced Magazine Editing

CDJN 201 - Magazine Advertising Sales and Marketing

CDJN 204 - Layout Software for Magazine Editors

CDJN 207 - The Online Publishing Toolkit

Magazine professional development opportunities at Ryerson's Chang School

There are a number of exciting learning opportunities available in the winter term of the Magazine and Web Publishing program at Ryerson University's Chang School. [Disclosure: I teach in the program.] 

NOTE: Registration is open now and it's important not to leave it until the last moment, risking disappointment. 

• CDJN 113 — Magazine and Website Editing deals with print and online skills in a focussed workshop environment. Drilling down into the editorial process, class members working in small groups get to use their skills and imagination in creating a plan for a digital or print magazine. 13 evenings, starting Jan 18. 
• CDJN 116 — Introduction to Magazine Design is a course that explores and analyzes how and why successful online and print magazines look the way they do. Not a design course, but rather an overview of typography, grids and formats; the anatomy of a magazine; developing design concepts and particularly the cover; working out a map; and the aesthetics and technical considerations of creating magazines that work for the reader. 13 evenings, starts 19 January.
• CDJN 117 — Writing for Magazines and the Web. If you're serious about writing and selling articles for online or print magazines, this is the introduction that deals with conceiving, focusing, pitching, researching, structuring, writing and revising both short and longer feature articles. 13 evenings, starting Jan 20. (A prerequisite for 118)
• CDJN 118 — Advanced Feature Writing The course emphasizes what is called literary journalism, which combines journalism's concern for solid reporting and factual accuracy with many of the dramatic techniques of fiction. At its best, this kind of feature writing holds readers' interest, entertaining them while simultaneously providing the depth and context necessary to understand complex issues and events or capture the essence of a profile subject. There will be short writing assignments as well as one longer feature. 13 evenings starting Jan 21.
• CDJN 120 — Magazine Fact-Checking and Research In the magazine business, fact-checking is a key entry-level job, a way for aspiring writers or editors to learn how a magazine works and how professional writers put together a story, and to develop relationships with editors that can lead to assignments or jobs. For writers, the more they know about what happens to an article in fact-checking, the better prepared they'll be to provide what editors want. 7 evenings, starting Jan 19.
• CDJN 121 — Magazine Packaging The course looks at planning and assigning a story package for online and print: websites and tablets; editing stories destined for packages; and working with art directors and digital producers to create packages. A variety of types of stories will be discussed and provided by both the instructor and the students, from long features to visual stories to instructional pieces to words-and-pictures infographics. Students are encouraged to think of magazines as both print and digital products. ONLINE CLASS (Distance Ed.) 7 weeks, starting Jan 18.
• CDJN 202 — Magazine Marketing and Circulation Selling of magazines themselves, rather than than their advertising pages currently offers more potential for revenue growth - and more career opportunities - than any other area of magazine publishing. This course focuses on marketing magazines to readers, covering all systems and methods that successful circulation marketing employs. 7 evenings, starts Jan 20.
• CDJN 204 — Layout Software for Magazine Editors  Many editors are expected to have some knowledge of the Adobe InDesign page layout program used to edit and format text, place artwork, create page layouts and organize editorial production and copy flow. This course provides the basics of the InDesign program that editors most need to know. Instruction is fast-paced, hands-on, and is taught in a Macintosh computer lab. 7 Saturdays mornings 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Starts Jan 23.
• CDJN 205 — Magazine Production In addition to the fundamentals of print production, this course includes the basics of multi-purposing text and pictures for today's digital magazine realities. Acquire the skills to publish on multiple platforms, gain an overview of current magazine production practices, including how magazines are printed and bound, and about how to schedule, budget and track magazine production for all formats; about ad portals, pre-media, printing process, and quality control. 13 evenings, starting Jan 19.
• CDJN 207 — The Online Publishing Toolkit The Online Publishing Toolkit is aimed at magazine professionals who want a general introduction to the technologies underlying digital publishing today. This course is not intended to make you a coding genius. Instead, to make sure you can talk knowledgeably with your IT staff, developers, and web designers about your publication's needs and ambitions online. Whether you’re in editorial, design, or publishing, learn to fully contribute to your magazines’ digital projects.Find out how to deliver content to readers whenever, wherever, and however they wish, with such vital tools as content management systems, mobile apps, "the cloud," digital versions and mobile editions, social media, micro sites, analytics, ad portals, and more. 7 evenings starting Jan 20.
• CDJN 208 — Ad Sales on the Web Ad sales in the digital age requires traditional persuasive skills, but operating in a whole new world of design, accountability, and instant measurement. Digital delivery is a big part of the future of magazine publishing. Become familiar with the ways online advertising is priced, pitched, measured, designed, and packaged. Learn about rich text, standard ad formats and pricing, positioning your publication against such heavy-hitting competitors as Google, and exercising your creativity to meet online advertisers' needs. Understand the metrics that matter most to advertisers and agencies and how to package and deliver them. 7 evenings, starting Jan 21.

Building magazine and web publishing skills

Looking to build your skills in many areas of magazine and web publishing? Check out the following courses, open for enrollment in the Winter 2015 term of the Magazine and Web Publishing program at Ryerson's Chang School in Toronto. 

39-hour Courses

• CDJN 112 - Magazine and Website Publishing
• CDJN 113 - Magazine and Website Editing
• CDJN 116 - Introduction to Magazine Design
• CDJN 117 - Writing for Magazines and the Web
• CDJN 118 - Advanced Feature Writing
• CDJN 205 - Magazine Production

19.5-hour Courses

• CDJN 120 - Magazine Fact-Checking and Research
• CDJN 121 - Magazine Packaging (Online Delivery)
• CDJN 122 - Advanced Magazine Editing
• CDJN 123 - Success as a Freelancer NEW!
• CDJN 201 - Magazine Advertising Sales and Marketing
• CDJN 204 - Layout Software for Magazine Editors
• CDJN 207 - The Online Publishing Toolkit
• CDJN 208 - Ad Sales on the Web

Early enrollment is advised. Course scheduling is subject to change.

Success and Pitching, two new Magazine and Web publishing courses at Ryerson's Chang School

Two new evening courses are due to begin very soon at Ryerson University's Chang School. They are each 7-weeks, each very practical, each the result of listening to what people have been telling us they need and want. Each can be taken as a one-off and both can be applied to the Magazine and Web Publishing certificate program. Don't delay.

• The Art of Pitching (CDJN124) a practical, step-by-step course on how to research, tailor and deliver a saleable magazine pitch to the right editor(s). Taught by prolific freelancer Rosemary Counter (Starts Wednesday Oct 29)
• Success as a Freelancer (CDJN123) is a primer on how to run a freelance business as a writer or editor. It's taught by experience freelancer and instructor Diane Peters. (Starts Thursday Oct. 30)

Annual Charles Oberdorf Memorial Award presented to Stephanie Young

Mechtild Hoppenrath (L) and Stephanie Young

The third annual Charles Oberdorf Memorial Award for excellence in magazine and web publishing was presented Thursday night to Stephanie Young. The award is given each year to a student nearing completion of the magazine and web publishing certificate in the memory of the longtime academic coordinator of the Magazine and Web Publishing program at Ryerson University's Chang School. The award was presented by Oberdorf's wife, Mechtild Hoppenrath at the Leaders in Learning awards event.

Oberdorf was equally well-known as a writer, editor, teacher and passionate advocate for the magazine form. During his some 18 years teaching at Ryerson, he shared his professional skills with his students, and imbued them with his own love of story-telling and journalism.The annual $1,000 merit award was created following Oberdorf's death in September 2011. (see below for information on contributing to the fund.)

Nico Mara-McKay

*  *  *

Also presented was the Terri DeRose Memorial Award in Circulation Management to Nico Mara-McKay. The award recognizes an excellent student who has completed a course addressing the topic of magazine circulation management and was established by the Circulation Management Association of Canada (CMC) honouring Terri DeRose's significant contribution to the circulation management profession as vice-president of consumer marketing at Transcontinental Media. 

Read more »

First Charles Oberdorf award made to Ryerson magazine student Jill Goodwin

Anya Oberdorf, Jill Goodwin and Mechtild Hoppenrath

The first annual award in the name of the late Charles Oberdorf was made Thursday at the Leaders in Learning event at the Chang School for Continuing Education at Ryerson University in Toronto. The $1,000 award is funded by donations from Oberdorf's friends, family and colleagues and the first recipient is Jill Goodwin, a part-time student in the Magazine and Web Publishing certificate program for which Oberdorf was the longtime and devoted coordinator. The award was presented by Oberdorf's wife Mechtild Hoppenrath and his daughter, Anya Oberdorf. 

Charles Oberdorf

The Charles Oberdorf Memorial Award was created to honour a student who is nominated by faculty and who is close to completing the 7-credit certificate program. The winner each year is to be chosen based on over all excellence and deemed potential for making the same kind of difference in the magazine and web publishing world in future as Charles made during his long career.

Charles was a highly respected, indeed loved, colleague and friend as a writer, editor and teacher who passed away September 2011. To know more about him, here is the obituary written at the time by Michael Posner that was published in the Globe and Mail. 

Contributions continue to be welcomed to raise the more than $25,000 necessary so that the annual award may be ensured, essentially forever. If more is raised, more awards will be given. Contributions to the fund are charitable and donors will receive a tax receipt issued by Ryerson University.
 

Contributions may be made online at
* *Charles Oberdorf Memorial Award
For those who wish to contribute by cheque it may be mailed to:
Charles Oberdorf Memorial Award
c/o Maureen Sheridan, Associate Director of Development
The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education
Ryerson University
350 Victoria Street, CED 613
Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3
416 979-5184
sheridan@gwemail.ryerson.ca

[If you have difficulty with the online link* above, the following can be typed into your browser:  https://ruonline.ryerson.ca/ccon/new_gift.do?action=newGift&giving_page_id=23