Covers of a magazine are the first thing people see when reading a magazine. They are specifically designed to grab people's attention and ensure that they are continually reading it. According to Michael Scherer, in his article "Chances are you won't bother to read this article. It is just one long block of text, after all, unbroken by alluring pictures, snappy captions, or eye-grabbing infographics. You can't click it. You can't flip it. All you can do is read it. (Does Size Matter?)", he states that, "... the visual sea change has overtaken the magazine industry in the last three decades...They are filled with color, oversized headlines, graphics, photos, and pull quotes." Magazine covers are a staple of not only magazine advertisement, but also embrace the statement design of the magazine company. A lot of information is given on just the magazine cover alone. By studying the choices that magazine companies make regarding their magazine's covers, you can find so much information of the company, what they stand for, and who their target audience are.
Starting with gathering information of the magazine company, it is clear what their main topics are based on the cover alone. Let's take a look at an example of this. The Better Homes and Gardens magazine is a perfect example. Looking at the cover alone shows that the magazine company is all about arts and crafts. They are geared toward the idea that, 'you need to put up a good image' and 'you need to outdo all of your friends to show how great you are'. The magazine cover that I was shown was a Halloween/Autumn issue. Everything was color coded and the image was of nicely decorated pumpkins and ghost cookies. The text is focused on the top and sides of the cover so that the most eye-catching thing on the cover is the well decorated pictures. See how much information there was from just the cover of the magazine. I already assessed that they were all for decorations and crafts for people who want to look better than some of their peers.
Another example of getting information from just the cover of a magazine is Sports Illustrated. The title alone can give you an idea of what the magazine company is about. Anyway, the cover shows a man (most likely a famous sports player) in the direct center with a field background. All of the letters are bold and color coded. In fact, all of the imagery is also very color coded to probably match the colors of the team being featured. It's already clear that the magazine company focuses entirely on sports and highlighting certain team's achievements (minus the swimsuit issue).
It is nice to get an idea of the company and what type of magazine they are putting into the world, but it is also interesting to see what a company stands for and positions they take for different issues. These can also be shown through magazine covers.
O, The Oprah Magazine shows this. Although the main focus of the magazine is to make people feel good and promote positivity, there are also some smaller articles based on political issues in the United States. On her cover, it shows a big picture of her smiling with her dog on her shoulders because as I have stated before, this magazine company is focused on positivity. However, on the top, there is a small article introduction that states, "Oprah Talks to Voters. Our election roundtable revisited: Who is still with Trump, who isn't?" Although it isn't the main focus of the magazine, it still shows what the company stands for when it comes to United States Politics.
Another example of the cover showing where a company stands for is GQ. In contrast to O, The Oprah Magazine, they are very clear about what they stand for and scream it in big lettering and a very cool and lighting dramatic picture. In electric blue lettering and font, the main article is shown, "CHANGE IS GOOD. A special issue featuring TRAVIS SCOTT and the Ragers, Agitators, & Activists who are boldly imagining the future." It's already clear on the issue they are talking about, and what they are standing for just by looking at the cover.
Now, it would be pointless to talk about magazine covers without covering the topic of target audience. Different magazine companies target different types of people and it shows through their choices on their magazine. It is very stereotypical of gender, race, and other demographics; but it is what attracts those demographics to the specific magazine. In the words of Michael Scherer, "In addition to grabbing attention, the explosion of choices parallels a fragmentation of consumer tastes." The consumer will pick what they are interested in and stick to the magazine company if it keeps producing magazines of similar, if not the same, interests.
I have already sort of covered this with my examples for companies showing their stand on issues. O, The Oprah Magazine is geared towards women looking for life advice; which is why the issue is not really the main focus of the cover page. Compare is to GQ's cover page which is bold and don't leave their views on issues to a side article. This is considered to be stereotypically male which is the target audience of GQ magazines. It is a stunning difference.
Other than gender, there are many other target audiences that magazines will cater to. Southern Living is a great example of this. Southern Living's target audiences are people who live in the Southern part of the United States. From their cover alone (which was the food issue) it showed a big picture of this delicious food. On the sides were color coordinated texts of articles, which were mainly along the lines of # of recipes to try, but it was more catered to residents of southern United States.
As shown from all these examples, the cover page of magazines are very important. Looking at them in-depth show so much about the magazine company and much more.
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