Cover creation 2002: which buzzwords are working? How do you stand out in a sea of sameness? Here's the thinking behind what makes a cover sell or tank

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Feb, 2002 by Joe Hagan

We all know that the newsstand is a cluttered, muddled mess. The sheer volume of magazines trying to squeeze their way onto shrinking retail shelves has clogged a system that was never very effective in the first place. It's expensive, it's wasteful and it's on the verge of a breakdown.

But instead of lamenting about what's wrong, Folio: set out to muster up some solutions, or at least ideas for improving your standing. We've assembled three pieces that address the most vexing obstacles: creating covers that differentiate your title from the pack, gaining back lost distribution and finding alternative routes to readers.

To complete the package, we've included an exclusive report on 2001 industry-wide sell-through numbers. The analysis of more than 100 consumer magazines by Capell & Associates and Folio: ranks the best and worst sellers and highlights the performance of individual sectors. On this front, we are happy to announce that there appears to be a bit of good news. Wholesaler pressure to improve efficiencies is taking hold and sell-through numbers-aftertumbling for more than a decade-have turned a corner. Overall, sell-through rates were stable at 44.9 percent when compared to 2000. And while it may be premature to celebrate just yet, it is a first step in the newsstand cleanup.

Susan Ungaro, editor in chief of Family Circle, has gathered her clutch of editors in her office to discuss coverlines for the April 2nd issue. Nibbling on cookies from the magazine's test kitchen, six women meditate in the direction of the cover image: a white-and-purple flower wreath on a door.

"Should we say 'Easter' on the cover?" wonders Ungaro, unsure if the holiday still has buzz. "Or should we do 'Spring'?"

"This is middle America, folks." proclaims one brassy editor, hiking up her glasses. "Easter generally does do well."

"'Welcome Spring Wreath'," proposes one editor.

"I'm afraid not to use 'Easter,' "says Ungaro. "I just don't want it too big."

"'Charming Easter Crafts'," ventures another.

"'Happy' or 'Charming'?" asks a fourth editor.

"Charming!" they all cry in unison.

Ungaro agrees: "It's more--charming."

Behold the mysterious process by which a successful newsstand magazine concocts a coverline. Since a redesign last May, Family Circle has managed to increase its newsstand sales, a rare thing in the tortured world of circulation. The magazine--which sells 4.6 million copies a month in total and about 1.8 million of that on the newsstands--increased single-copy sales by 2 percent in the last eight months of 2001. But redesigns come around only every so often, and maintaining this momentum 11 months later isn't easy. When you consider that newsstand sales for the top 100 magazines were down 3.9 percent in 2001, you realize how a coverline meeting can make all the difference in the world.

Not everyone agrees on how to create a winning cover. What is the right combination of gut instinct, experienced eyes, focus-group testing and raw data? Folio: sat in on the decision-making process at magazines where the alchemy seems to be coming together to discover what makes the magic happen.

So how does a wreath help bump newsstand circ? During the recent redesign, Ungaro and the magazine's creative director, Diane Lamphron, were deliberate in thinking about how to make the magazine stand out in the supermarkets where it sells most of its single copies. Considering the circus-like environment, they decided their covers should be an "oasis," something that would soothe the eye in a world of noise--a very post-9/11 idea concocted pre-g/11. As a result, they opted against celebrities on their covers, favoring instead soft, stylish arrangements and crafts--like a wreath. The consensus in this cover meeting was that this particular craft was most spring-like, with the brighter, lighter qualities that traditionally sell well.

Janet Chan, editorial director of Time Inc.'c Parenting Group, publisher of Parenting and Baby Talk, seeks a similar feeling in her covers, looking for a certain spontaneity, something natural and idyllic. When creating covers for Parenting--where single-copy numbers were up 15.2 percent in the first half of 2001 to 70,996--Chan puts a lot of stock in intuition. "You'll follow a lot of rules and you could say that's the science, but I think a lot of it is gut. For me, thinking of designing a cover is looking for the image that says, 'You want to take this puppy home.'"

And what exactly is that quality? In Chan's case, it's all about the je ne sais quoi of a cute kid: "What I call 'schnooky,'" she says, "a winky, cute, sometimes a little off-beat look that is. Above all, cute."

No science there. But once a cover comes together, Chan does some impromptu testing, roaming around the floors of the Parenting Group offices. "I just lay it out and say, 'Gut!: What do you like better?' If you think about it, I don't think this is quite rational."

Next come the coverlines, a process that introduces a little more certainty--in other words, rules. The most effective buzzwords are rather well known: save, win, free. In a word, "I would say the formula is, promises, promises," says Susan Kane, editor in chief of Baby Talk. "Everything an enticing promise."