Magazine Cover Review

The first thing you see when looking at a magazine is the title page. You may notice the font types, colors used, famous people on the front cover, cool art, and special lighting techniques, and even possibly political opinions.

 Magazines like the Rolling Stone may soon start to suffer, as many magazines now have very short and to the point articles and many other forms of obtaining information exist today. "Over at Rolling Stone, once a paragon of long-form innovation, editor Ed Needham admits that he doesn't even bother to read long articles in magazines. "People just don't have as much time to read" he told USA Today. His boss, Jann Wenner, seems to agree. "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." Based on what I have personally viewed from the Rolling Stone, I think to date this is still true. I don't remember anything particularly flashy on the cover, or any famous faces that I personally knew that caught my attention. Even though this is a famous magazine, if I saw this in the store I most likely wouldn't choose to pick up this magazine 

One magazine that did catch my eye was Better Homes and Gardens. This caught my attention because right on the cover it showed cute little pumpkins, fall decorations and everything displayed was fall themed. This magazine during this time of year is obviously marketed towards fall loving people, such as myself. If I saw Better Homes and gardens in the store I would definitely give it a read.

Some magazines use popular people to help them gain attention in the community. For example, The Oprah Magazine has Oprah on the front of every cover ( except one ) and she is usually wearing some cute outfit, hanging out outside, and she has a big smile on her face. Many people would choose to purchase this magazine for one reason; Oprah. All of Oprah's super fans would eat this up; no matter wat content was displayed inside. This is a great marketing technique because using a successful woman like Oprah on your magazine attracts all of Oprah's fans and, people who dream of being like Oprah some day.

Another way of marketing is creating something that looks interesting to the viewer. A great example of this is the Conde Nast Traveler. Even though at first I had no clue what this magazine was about, I was still very intrigued by the cover. The cover displayed someone swinging from a tree with different colored text and fonts of titles surrounding them; this immediately caught my attention. It made me wonder why they did this and who they were trying to attract to this magazine. Once I viewed the inside I finally understood who this was for. People who are curious. People who seek adventure. The inside of the magazine had many luxury vacation spots that any traveler would love to visit. This marketing style was super effective because to want to read about vacations, you have to be adventurous and curious, and the cover attracts that type of person.

Finally, another smart method of marketing is like using what is displayed in Motor Trend. Obviously, people who are interested in cars will pick up Motor Trend since it is all about cars. The best part about this magazine for the authors is it is possibly one of the easiest magazines to create revenue off of. Since the whole magazine is car related anyways the reader will most likely actually take interest in the advertisement and consider purchasing a vehicle.