With the 'Edit Templates' dialog box still showing, and your new empty pages on-screen, go to Page>Manage Guides, in the menus on top. We are going to add some horizontal and vertical guides, which are lines that won't print, but guide your eyes into placing columns of text, and graphics, with perfect alignment.
[Operators] The left page has a 20mm margin from the left edge. Inside this margin, I wish to leave a half-column of white space, of 45mm. So in the 'Manage Guides' dialog box, click on 'Add' under the 'Vertical Guides', and in the X-Pos field, type “20+45”. Yes, Scribus will use simple math operators in all fields that require a numerical entry. (You can even enter “30 mm + 1.5 in” to operate between different units). Add the other vertical guides at 122.5 mm and 127.5mm. Look at the numerical precision with which Scribus places it. Add a Horizontal guide at 265 mm. Important: click the 'Lock Guides' button at the bottom so your guides don't accidentally move on the page. Click OK. Your page will have guides similar to the screenshot here.
[Page-Numbers] Add the Red band on top, place a text frame with that loose-tracked text 'Khajuraho' at the top. Follow the steps you learnt in the previous section. Similarly, add a text frame at the bottom for the magazine name, issue detail, and page number. Except you don't type a static page number. Just press the control key + # combination. To counter-check your command, go to Edit>Preferences>General. Click on the button 'Keyboard Shortcuts...'. Scroll the list to find your shortcut.
[Right Page] To create the Features page for the right hand side, click on New in Templates, choose 'Right Page' from the drop-down menu, name the template 'FeaturesR'. Bring up Page>Manage Guides, and enter the following for adding Vertical guides: 82.5mm, 87.5mm, 145mm. Add a Horizontal guide at 265mm. Like with FeaturesL, add the red band on top with text, and the page number details at the bottom. Click the 'Close' button on the Templates dialog box. You find yourself back in your Scribus document's regular pages.
[Drag-'n-Drop Pages] Go to Tools>Page Palette in the menus. In the palette, you will find your existing front cover as page one, and three templates in the above section, Normal, FeaturesL, and FeaturesR. To add another page, click and drag FeaturesL from 'Available Templates' to the 'Document Pages' area, below-left to the Normal first page. Page 2 is thus automatically added, to the left side. Similarly, drag and drop a page 3 with FeaturesR, and page 4 with FeaturesL. Zoom in on the actual document pages and note the page numbers are automatically generated.
[Two-Columns of Text Per Page] Using the guide-lines on each page as a cue, click and drag to create a text frame from the top-left of the first column of each page, to the bottom-left of the second column of each page. Yes, this will be one text frame per page. Select each text frame, go to the Properties palette, click on 'Shape' and at the bottom, type '2' in the 'Columns' field, and '5' in the 'Gap' field. Each text frame now contains two columns. Uncheck 'Text flows around frame' on the 'X, Y, Z' tab of the palette, for each text frame.
[Use Consistent Paragraph Styles] Good publication design is about using consistent styles. The formatting for the main story, called the 'Body Text' must be the same for all pages, and all stories. Similarly, headline, captions, and sub-heads styles must also be consistently used throughout a publication or a section. Rather than manually punch in the specific font, size, and other settings each time, it helps to define the style once, and then just click on it to set a selected paragraph in that style. Automatic for the people.