Until last year putting ads on magazine covers was a big no-no in the magazine industry. Critics argued ads on magazine covers compromised editorial integrity. But with ad revenue down, many magazines started experimenting with cover ads as pouches, flaps and other gimmicky solutions. Scholastic Parent & Child magazine took a much simpler approach by putting ad directly on its cover, starting with its April 2009 issue.
Just like last month, we're looking at our February magazine issues that have already arrived, and wondering what kind of spin the top-selling magazines will put on another annual/predictable theme: Valentine's Day. So far, we've been a little more satisfied by the variety of ways magazines have embraced or stayed away from cupid's holiday, than we were with last month's widely-repeated "New Year, New You" angle on New Year's.
Unsurprising, women's magazines and food & cooking magazines mostly did not resist covers with a Valentine's Day palette and content theme. Like this Martha Stewart Living magazine cover below, Southern Living, Woman's Day and Every Day with Rachael Ray sport pink, red and white colors and a mention of chocolate (yum).
Outside of those categories, Psychology Today as seen below, continue the pink palette and love theme, albeit from a different angle. Travel + Leisure and Maxim magazine also feature a Valentine's Day palette and theme. Although it's a bit of a stretch, we also consider Road & Track magazine's cover, which features a red Ferrari 458 Italia, to be a Valentine's Day-inspired cover. After all, isn't Valentine's Day at least a little about fantasy?
Still, there are a few magazines that embraced the love as a theme, though subtly. The best example for us is Ebony magazine with its feature "Love Stories Revealed: How 8 Couples Keep it Going."
And finally, there are those magazines that gave Valentine's Day themes and color palettes the hand like Marie Claire, Natural Health, Instyle and Food Network magazine.
What do you think? Do you like Valentine's Day-themed magazines?
Stay tuned. Next month we'll take a look at how fashion magazines cover spring fashion.
Now that we’ve recovered from the holidays and are back in reality mode, we’re catching up on our January magazine issues. Like most everyone else we’ve got New Year’s resolutions on the brain and wanted to see what kind of spin January issues put on this annual/predictable theme. Not surprisingly, the majority of the magazines we perused stuck with the New Year theme. Bicycling, Harper’s Bazaar and Runner’s World went with “New Year New You,” a theme even we can’t resist.
Here are a few headlines we noticed and that admittedly, piqued our interest in the most-talked about topics of the New Year (money, fitness, eating, organizing and fashion) on the cover of some January issues.
Marie Claire: “Feel Good Fashion” 275 Finds to Jump-Start the New Year
Better Homes & Gardens: “Get Organized! 50+ Ways to Pare Down, Cut Clutter, Store More”
Food & Wine: “Best Recipes for 2010”Melodramatic honorable mention: Esquire with “The Meaning of Life 2010”
The zinger: O The Oprah Magazine with “How to Get What You Really Want”
Martha Stewart Living: “Eat Better, Live Better, Feel Good”
What do you think about these headlines? Inspiring or tired?
Just like everyone else, we feel the need to weigh in on the best/worst of 2009. So that’s what we’re all about this week—the best and worst in magazines. Today we start out with our picks for best magazine covers. We define best by a combination of criteria including buzz-worthiness, history-making, inventive or just memorable. Of course, there were some covers that people talked about—a lot—that we decided we didn’t want to include because we’re tired of them. Example: There was a lot of buzz surrounding various GQ magazine covers that featured mostly-naked celebrities including comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and Jennifer Aniston. Those covers did not make our list. But the follow magazine covers did, in no certain order:
1. The New Yorker magazine: In May artist Jorge Colombo's iPhone finger-painted scene of Times Square appeared on the New Yorker's June 1st cover. Though we're still a little cynical about the Apple ad tie-in, we still think the cover art is clever.
2. Time magazine: Of course almost every magazine had a Michael Jackson tribute cover this year but only one was out first: Time. News of the King of Pop's death broke on the Internet on Thursday; Time magazine's issue was out on Monday.
3. Vogue magazine: First Lady Michelle Obama became only the second first lady (Hillary Rodham Clinton was the first) to grace the cover of Vogue magazine's March issue. As the Washington Post noted at the time, Mrs. Obama's appearance on the fashion industry bible communicates a modern event--the intersection of power and beauty.
4. Self magazine: Back in August Self magazine had the nerve to feature an obviously-retouched Kelly Clarkson on the cover under the headline, "Total Body Confidence." Though the editor defended the move as "inspiring," we along with readers found it lame.
5. Golf Digest: Golf Digest is on the list for the most-ill-timed magazine cover of the year and for the way the editors handled it.
6. O Magazine: Even though Michelle Obama's feat of being the first person to appear on the cover with the talk-show queen is less than spectacular now that Ellen DeGeneres has done it too, this cover made our list for its history-making turn. It could also be on our worst covers list. (Is it just us or does it appear that Mrs. Obama is floating next to Oprah?)
7. ESPN The Magazine: We love a magazine success story and this is one of the great ones this year. We also love a little competition, so when ESPN The Magazine took on Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue with The Body Issue, we and pretty much everyone else took notice.
8. Newsweek: Last month Newsweek magazine featured a critical story on former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin with the headline,"How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sarah?" along with a photo of Palin in an exercise outfit and sneakers, which was originally taken to accompany a profile in Runner's World magazine. Palin wrote on her Facebook page that the photo choice was "unfortunate" and goes on to blast Newsweek's photo decision as "out-of-context and sexist."
It started at midnight last night—throngs of tween and teen girls flocked to the first showings of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” Regardless of the tepid reviews now surfacing, everyone involved including the movie’s many advertisers, stand to cash in on the many marketing campaigns launched around the second movie developed from Stephenie Meyer's wildly popular teenage-vampire-romance series.
Advertisers like Burger King and AT&T have been very willing to launch various marketing campaigns around the undead and multitude of devoted fans. Some of these tie-ins (Hot Topic, Kohl’s) are no-brainers aimed at the movies’ core audience--tween and teen girls. But several are not, like Volvo, which launched an interactive puzzle game in which one winner will take home a Volvo XC60—similar to the Volvo the vampire Edward Cullen drives in the movies.
Magazines have followed this trend too—obvious titles like Teen Vogue, J-14, Seventeen, Entertainment Weekly and People magazine have featured the leading stars—Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson—as well as supporting stars on covers multiple times. But then there’s the less obvious ones. Vanity Fair magazine features Pattinson on the cover of its December issue, Interview magazine has Stewart and Harper’s Bazaar has both stars in requisite high fashion and dramatic pose. Even more surprising, the current December issue of Men’s Health magazine features New Moon’s newest leading man, 17-year-old Taylor Lautner, who talks about how he beefed up for his role.
