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TV Guide Magazine Cover Buzz

This week the Internet is buzzing over TV Guide magazine's upcoming cover featuring the cast of the mega-popular Fox musical-drama "Glee," which returned to prime time last night.

This is much-needed buzz for TV Guide magazine; the aging magazine's redesigned issue hits stands this week. 

The magazine, as we mentioned a few weeks ago is looking for ways to stay relevant, has reorganized its content with a color-coded system corresponding to the days of the week and  highlights editors' viewing recommendations. In addition to the redesigned content, subscribers will receive a daily e-mail newsletter with links to the magazine Web site and more programming information.

First Lady Appears on Cover of Conde Nast Traveler Magazine

With its May issue out this week, Conde Nast Traveler magazine features Michelle Obama on its cover accompanied by a cover story entitled, "Mrs. Obama's Washington: Why the First Lady Loves Her New Hometown." This marks the first time the travel magazine has featured a First Lady on its cover. 

In the cover story Mrs. Obama details her and her family's favorite historical destinations including Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's estate, Frederick Douglass' home and Mount Vernon. Mrs. Obama also mentions other favorite spots including a handful of restaurants and the Newseum.

Mrs. Obama has appeared on many other magazine covers, including Glamour magazine, Vogue, O, The Oprah magazine, People and Time magazine.

Us Weekly and People Magazine's Similar Covers

This week both Us Weekly magazine and People magazine feature recent Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock on their covers. The choice--in the wake of Bullock's marriage scandal--was obvious for both celeb magazines. However, we were a bit surprised when we noticed that the magazines' covers were so similar; on both covers Sandra Bullock is featured profile-style in the same pink blouse.

We weren't the only ones to notice the almost-identical covers. The New York Times did too, interviewing Brittain Stone, photography director of Us Weekly magazine, how it happened. Interestingly, Mr. Stone briefly chronicled how the magazine chooses its cover photos, noting that both magazine cover photos came from a press junket Bullock attended for the movie The Proposal.

In addition to very similar cover photos, Us Weekly and People magazine featured identical headlines inside and out including "How she found out;" and "Inside Sandra's Heartbreak."

Working Mother Magazine Features Celebrity Moms

After years of featuring everyday working moms with their kids on its covers, Working Mother magazine has started featuring celebrity moms. Former Olympian Kristi Yamaguchi  is the first celebrity on Working Mother magazine‘s February/March cover while actress Kelly Rutherford will appear on the magazine’s April cover.
 
Working Mother magazine is the third magazine to change cover strategies lately. Scholastic Parent & Child and Prevention magazine recently started featuring celebrities too.
 
The editors of these magazines said they felt celebrity women and moms’ images would be uplifting to their readers, reports Mediaweek.
 
What do you think? Is putting celebrities on their covers a good move for these magazines?
 
 

Best Magazine Cover: Paste Magazine

Remember the now-famous Time magazine cover, "Is God Dead?" Neither do we, but we've seen it plenty of times. This month Paste magazine repeated the cover design and asked the question "Is Indie Dead?" We love Paste's cover design gesture, do you?

Will Magazines Continue to Put Ads on Covers?

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.

At first, the American Society of Magazine Editors was a critic, blasting Entertainment Weekly and ESPN The Magazine for crossing the line. But later the organization came around to the idea, stating to The New York Times in August that House Beautiful magazine's pouch cover-ad was acceptable because "There is no problem with running advertising next to editorial; it's only a problem when a magazine uses the cover for just advertising purposes."

Now some new research is going to add fuel to the debate. Ads on the front cover often outperform magazines' other "premium" placement, according to the research from Affinity's Vista service, reports Ad Age.

Will publishers be able to resist? How will readers react? Tell us what you think.

On Sale Now: Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition at Magazines.com

Last night the cover of this year's highly-anticipated Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition was revealed on The Late Show with David Letterman. Supermodel Brooklyn Decker graces the famed cover under the headline "A Perfect 10."

As cover model, Brooklyn Decker joins a long list of now famous supermodels who have graced the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine's Swimsuit edition including Kathy Ireland, Cheryl Tiegs, Hiedi Klum, Elle MacPherson, Tyra Banks and Petra Nemcova.

The Swimsuit edition hits stands tomorrow and is now available at Magazines.com.

February Magazine Covers: Love, Chocolate and Red All Over

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.

New Year, Same Magazine Cover Headlines

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”
Men’s Health: “You 2010 Discover How Strong You Can Be”
Fitness: “Reach Your Goal”
Both Kiplinger’s Personal Finance and SmartMoney: “Where to Invest 2010”
Woman’s Day: “Save 2,010 in 2010”
Instyle: “Your Most Stylish Year Ever!”

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?

8 Best Magazine Covers of 2009

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."