Aurala magazine is here - the moods of the authors

This morning, a pallet of freshly printed Aurala magazines . "tired but happy" that is often used in a completely different context This year, there were two yellow beaks working on the magazine; Essi acting as spokesperson's deputy and Kati doing a marketing communication internship in Aurala. Quite a lot of new and wonderful things came up during the making of the magazine, but everything was sorted out and now we are happy and proud of the new arrival here! 

The creation of the Aurala magazine was started in May, and many thoughts were running through my mind. Excitement, enthusiasm, a little worry and a lot of wonder. It felt wild to start with no previous experience to make a magazine that has a print run of almost 65,000 copies and has a long tradition – after all, it has been published since the 50s. 

So what did the making of the magazine entail?   

Contracts

In May, contracts were negotiated with the post office, the printing house and the folding company. These were achieved in such an easy way that we continued with the same proven partners as before. Still, there was surprisingly much to wonder about in terms of print quantities, distribution areas and coordinating schedules. For example, in the very last meters, there was a moment of sweat on your forehead when, when confirming the delivery date, it turned out that the number of leaves coming to Aurala was more than 1000 pieces less than it should have been. After checking invoices, calls and clarifications, it turned out that it was not a billing error, but that 1400 more mailboxes had arrived in the distribution area after the calculations and agreements made in May. I hadn't thought of such a possibility at all! Fortunately, the print run of the magazine was increased at the last minute, so now you can pick up your own copy from Aurala or from the distribution points, if the magazine doesn't hit your door this time. You can find the list of distribution points at the end of the text. 

Data collection 

In addition to the traditional course selection for the upcoming season, the Aurala magazine also contains other current news from Aurala. Kati once studied communication at the university and dreamed of becoming a journalist, and now, by making a magazine, she was able to realize this side of herself. "It was great to come up with an idea for the homepage and think of a new perspective on it. And the best thing is that, in the end, its content was born from Essi's idea, which I implemented and which was then continued with Jenni, who is in charge of digital marketing, until the summer. So there was strength in cooperation here as well.” 

Most of the magazine's content is the selection of courses for the academic year 2022-23, and the material for course information is obtained from the course registration system. We have to admit that in June, jaws could drop when we first looked at the almost 200 pages of course information taken out of the system. The purpose was to edit it into a readable format and condense it into 30 pages, HUH! In the end, it took the two of us a good week.   

At this stage, many "invisible parties" also participated (or should I say participated) in the making of the magazine. There was not once or twice when the Finnish language teachers Terhi and Laura checked the correctness of the spelling, the office's Hanna asked about matters related to practical arrangements, Jenni or Raimo was asked for digital support and almost anyone who met in the corridors of Aurala gave an opinion on different implementation options. In addition, Aurala's long-term volunteer Hanna Laulajainen was a big help, proofreading the magazine's materials both in the text file phase and for the folded version. Hanna's help was invaluable, as she made excellent comments about the magazine's shortcomings and mistakes that we, the magazine's authors, no longer noticed. 

Cooperation with the folding

When the material was collected, the cooperation with the folding began. Johanna Marttila edited Aurala magazine for the first time last year, so she already had a clear vision of what we were doing. We are grateful for Johanna's flexibility and gentle attitude towards our beginners' questions, suggestions for corrections and sometimes slightly vague ideas or forms of delivery of the material.

Johanna has also drawn the seagull picture seen on the cover of last year's magazine. Since then, the seagull as a mascot has been involved in Aurala's communication in different versions. We wanted sympathetic seagulls on the cover of the magazine this year as well. Very different options were discussed with Johanna. It seemed difficult to get the right kind of message about what we have at the college in the cover photo - when the offer is so diverse and aimed at different generations. In Midsummer week, just before going on vacation, the first folded version of the magazine was shown. In the office, you could hear a lot of enthusiastic cheers. It was so gratifying to see beautifully illustrated and laid out sets of pages after staring at the text files.   

Final filings and verifications

In August, after the holidays, the last files and small corrections were made to the magazine due to changes in course schedules or teachers. Then we confirmed the schedules with the printing plant and the post office and that the magazine moved from the folding machine to the printer and from the printer to the post office exactly as it was supposed to. Things went well in the end and here we are now; pink magazines in Aurala waiting for applicants and export to distribution points, and more than 60,000 magazines in the mail waiting for the delivery day and interested readers from Friday.

Essi Leikas & Kati Vallenius