How Do Magazine Editors Generate Creative Story Ideas?

Question

How far in advance to most editors plan ahead when creating story ideas? Where do they get a lot of these ideas from, too?

What are some unconventional places to look for some ideas?

Answer 1

When I was editor in chief for my school newspaper, just a year ago, I would give the staff around 1 - 1.5 weeks to complete one story. This is probably because the adviser/teacher had to teach material as well...but, I'd say most stories could be done within 1-3 days, if they had the dedication. It also depends on how hard is it to obtain information/quotes/details, etc. I took it all under consideration, as some of my staff members had nearly 2  weeks to complete a front-page assignment.

Since it was a school environment, we took our story ideas from the local community and the school itself. It was enough going on to help us put out a minimum of an 8 page paper each month. On your circumstance, it all depends on your magazine topic.