Over the past few years, my team and I have done dozens of Magazine Action Plans. While every publication is unique, there are a few common issues that we see over and over. One of them? Too many words per spread.

Before I dig into this topic, I want to be clear about my stance on words:

I like them!

Plus, I know most editors have a writing background, not a design background, so this focus on words is understandable.

But the best magazines skillfully weave together words, images, and design to create a coffee table–worthy object.

In other words, there has to be a balance.

And too often, the magazines I see use wayyyyyy too many words — leaving little room for art to shine or white space to provide visual breathing room.

I get how this happens: you’ve assigned a story (to yourself or to someone on your team), and then you get a request from administration to add a sidebar on a related issue. Maybe another source has to be added for political reasons or to fill an unexpected gap. Or maybe that lyrical paragraph is JUST PERFECT and CANNOT BE CUT.

But if you want to diminish the visual wallop of your magazine, cramming your magazine with words from margin to margin might be one of the most effective ways to do it.

So how do you make sure you’re not overdoing it, words-wise? Here’s one rule of thumb:

To plan the right amount of content for a two-page spread (not a feature opener, that is a topic for another day), you should typically assume a maximum about 700-750 words TOTAL for the spread, and often less.

This was a recommendation I first heard from designer Kat Braz, and that has proved itself out again and again, across many different publications.

Now, this does assume that you have good photography, not a 1 KB image of an alum shot from a moving roller coaster!  But that, too, is a topic for another day. For now, I’m going to assume that you have good photography or art that can be run at a range of different sizes.

Let’s take a look at what you can do at different spread word counts:

350 words

The profiles in Red are short — and they pop, thanks to clean design, white space and photos that jump the gutters. (There’s a reason that designer Emily Aldrich has a Sibley!)

This immersive design really makes a reader linger on the page:

500 words

Not too long ago, I wrote some profiles for Rachel Naggar at Kent Place. Designer Kelly McMurray mentioned she’d have some amazing shots of students. Great, I said during the planning meeting, how many words do we need per profile so that we don’t diminish their impact?

Rachel, Kelly, and I decided that 250 — about a column of text — would work well.

And boy did it:

Aside: If you’ve got a great designer, get them into the planning process as early as possible! They will see possibilities for your magazine that you might not.

750 words

For this story for Tippie Magazine, I worked with editor Amanda May to craft a series of profiles about faculty and business leaders using AI to make an impact in their field.

The design team at the Williams McBride Group crafted spread of 750-ish words that had space for cool headshots and profiles, a little fact box, and some white space, too.

 

900 words

Okay, I wrote a little long for Purdue’s Ginny Reynolds, but you can see how she was able to include a couple photos, white space, and interesting typography with the copy for this “What it Feels Like” feature:

 

If I could go back again, I might have cut a hundred and fifty words or so to give her even more space to work with!

Skilled designers like Kat can make more copy work — but a ton of copy should be the exception, not the norm.

Two caveats

There are absolutely some instances where you can have even more words on a spread — way more than the typical 700-ish.

It requires a skilled designer who can use type in an intentional and skillful way, flexible page grids that allow for more sophisticated layout options, and the work that is packaged thoughtfully.

EmDash, for example, has taken some of my wordiest work for Kenyon’s Elizabeth Weinstein and turned it into killer spreads:

This looks great! But this is also really, really hard to do well.  EmDash specializes in magazine work — and it shows.

And if you’ve truly got killer longform stories, you can absolutely have a word-heavy New Yorker-type design and your audience will be riveted.

In both cases, these are intentional choices, not haphazard ones.

Now it’s your turn

I’ve provided these as general guidelines, but I know there are some of you out there who are saying: “Yeah, but maybe my magazine is different? And we can fit more words?”

Here’s one way to find out: have your designer mock up some pages! A few years ago, the editors at Cedars-Sinai Discoveries magazine shared the mocked up pages that their design team, B&G Design Studios, had created.

It was a beautiful way for the team to visualize what they could do when they hit certain word counts:

To be clear, the point is not to hit some arbitrary word count: it is to create every story with intention. Incorporate these word counts into your paginations and story assignments so you don’t automatically put yourself at a disadvantage.

Give yourself the best possible chance to create a beautiful magazine that your audience savors.