Magazine Cover Review

 September 21, 2020

        Have you ever walked into a grocery store and are about to check out and leave and then your eye is caught by a display of color pictures and extravagant headlines? Well, you would be looking at the cover of a magazine. This is a crucial part of the magazine; it is the attention grabber to encourage the person to open it up and take a look and then get hooked by the different articles and buy the issue. 

        Magazines have had to use a variety of techniques over the years to stay popular and relevant compared to news programs and television shows. As seen in different research areas, “Between 1986 and 2002, the share of newsweekly readers under the age of thirty-five dropped from 44 to 28 percent. The share of young long-form readers dropped from 39 to 20 percent.” (Does size matter?). The article being discussed happens to be the magazine franchise called Newsweekly, in the source, they discuss how their numbers as well as other magazines popularity has decreased since the 1980s to today. 

    Different magazines have been known to use key features to grab the attention of viewers at the cover and then draw them into the feature article. As seen in Orpah's magazine, she is found on the cover of all but 1 of her magazines, she uses her fame and positive outlook to grab people's attention. Her clothes and background are normally matching the season or festivities at that time of the year, she also has a quote or phrase about positivity or hopefulness on the cover that relates to her feature article. 

    Other magazine companies rely more on other tactics as seen with Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and GQ all have a celebrity on the cover that is typically dressed in a serious, photoshoot way on top of the celebrity in the center of the cover with a stylish font as the title, then it goes directly to colored fonts about all the stuff that will be talked about celebrities, awards, sex, and other personal interests.  

        According to Jann Wenner, "People just don't have as much time to read", as he told it to 'The USA Today'. "Back when Rolling Stone was publishing these seven-thousand-word stories, there was no CNN, no Internet" Wenner told the Times. "And now you can travel instantaneously around the globe, and you don't need these long stories to get up to speed." (Does size matter?). This quote was taken directly from the “Does Size Matter” article as it deals with a very important point. People in today's world are extremely busy, with long workdays, family activities and more people don’t have time to read a long article and if they are going to, they are much more likely to use the internet. Due to its speed, global coverage, and instant access, many people utilize the internet to keep up to date on current events rather than buy and read a magazine. 

        All current magazine franchises are doing a few things right to keep loyal readers and bring in new ones. All magazines utilize different fonts, color schemes, and images to convey what they will be talking about. More specifically in today's world all magazines ranging from Oprah to Sports Illustrated are all showing covers and feature articles relating to the country's racial turmoil.  While the magazines more directly associated with women drop subtle hints in the cover and table of contents and then in the feature article discuss the racial issue, and men's magazines have aggressive covers directed very openly towards change, they all discuss the relevant issue. 

        Currently, I'm leaning towards doing a magazine more because I feel like there is more creative elements that can be infused into a magazine. Writing has always been a creative outlet that I enjoy so I think that adding in pictures and formatting will intrigue and interest me, which will in turn motivated me to wan to make the project the best as possible. I want to look at the software first, but I think that I like the writing aspect of the magazine just as much as the creative element.