Diary of a Mad Editor

Archive for November 9th, 2008

Cover Me

Perhaps I’ve mentioned this before — perhap not, but whenever I go food shopping I always spend some time in the magazine aisle reading and studying the top magazines. I especially like looking at the cover designs. Have you ever noticed how similar all magazine covers are nowadays? No variety or imagination at all put into the design. The blazing guns and explosions of the latest copycat first person shooter on the cover of every gaming magazine. The big monster truck or sports car covers of automobile magazines. The multiple shots of whatever flavor of the month celeb hoochie on every womans/fashion/tabloid magazine.

I swear, I couldn’t honestly tell one magazine from another. And I’m not even talking about the magazine’s content. Actress, Nicole Kidman (an attractive, brilliant actress though she may be) was on no less than three magazine covers — and it was obvious that the photos were from the same photo shoot.

The covers are supposedly designed to sell magazines, but given that the magazine industry has been in decline just like other periodicals, maybe these magazine publishers should put more thought into their presentation. Even a magazine like the Atlantic Monthly is starting to look like every other magazine out there. Again, I’m not even talking about the content, which is a whole other symptom of the same problem.

I’m not sure what can be done to rectify the situation, but I suspect this is a product of that whole corporate synergy thing. A case of the bottom line subverting art and creativity. Here’s a thought: maybe concentrating on the more creative aspects first and foremost and not relying so much on market research (which having participated in those magazine industry market surveys before, I can tell you they’re inadequate — I mean, putting two nearly equally crappy magazine covers in front of a reader and asking them which one sucks the least is not the best way to do things).