Jo Castro
Blogging and Social Media

The difference between a Blog Post and a Magazine Article

A blog post should …

• Inform
• Entertain
• Tell a personal story and have personal opinions
• Engage
• Invite Comments
• Have a call to action
• Darren Rowse says a blog should comprise of; Information, inspiration or interaction – perhaps a mix of all three by degrees.
• It will be written in the first person.
• It’s likely to be friendly, chatty and me to you in style.
• It will be informal and written from the blogger’s perspective.
• There may or may not be photographs depending on the topic.
• Paragraphs are often only one sentence in length. Rarely are they long.
• Sub heads, block quotes, numbers, bullet points and images with text overlay are all used to break up the text.
• A blog post should tell some kind of story, and include a beginning, middle and end. The end should probably have an ‘aha’ moment or a call to action.

A feature or an article for a magazine must do one of the following …

Entertain, Inform or Educate.

• Entertain: A back page observational humour article in a magazine would for instance be entertaining, written from the writer’s perspective, and might not offer much how-to information. A regular columnist would offer an opinion or be entertaining, and again there would probably not be much take home information except in reference to the writer’s life or the writer’s knowledge. This is the form of magazine writing most closely related to a blog post and it’s likely to be written in the first person. Apart from a head and shoulder image of the writer, there may not be other photos – but possibly there might be an artist’s illustration. This type of article is not likely to be more than about 600 words.
• Inform: A feature in the body of a womens’ magazine would be informative and contain one or two useful pictures to pique interest. It would be well researched with quotes from others. It would not only rely solely on the writer’s knowledge. It would be written in the third person. The style would vary from magazine to magazine and it’s important to understand the ‘tone and voice’ used. This kind of feature would be of topical interest and closely tied in with the news, style and trends of the day. Paragraphs would be short, probably between one to three sentences in length and the sub editor on the magazine may add in sub headings. The writer would need to make sure the story flows easily from paragraph to paragraph, and that there is a defined Beginning, Middle and End. The best features have a neat wrap up conclusion that relates back to the introduction. A magazine article or feature is likely to be from 1,000 to about 2,500 words – but can vary depending on the publication.
• Educate: A feature in something like a trade magazine or hobby magazine would educate, and contain quotes and references from experts in their fields. It might be written in more formal language. It’s unlikely to be chatty. It may be from 1,000 to 3,000 words in length depending on the publication. Photos would relate to the information being supplied. Its purpose would be to provide up to date information in bite sized pieces.

Articles and Features in magazines in newspapers are generally not written in the first person, although some, particularly travel features, may be.

Personal opinion is not encouraged, except in the ‘back page’ type of article ( or unless it’s coming from regular columnists.)

Features and articles must be well written and flow well. You can’t depend on sub heads and photos to break them up as you can with blog posts, because both photos and sub heads will be inserted by the magazine’s sub editors.

You can use numbered lists or bullet points.

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