Revising the Cover Story

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, March 1, 2003 by Sarah Gonser

Byline: SARAH GONSER

KATE WHITE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF COSMOPOLITAN , SOUNDS VAGUELY - MAYBE NOT even sincerely - apologetic. It is another frigid Manhattan morning in late January as she stands before a packed conference-room crowd of ASME editors, many of whom grin as she explains that she may have distorted the truth, if just a little. "On the brochure that went out, we said we were going to reveal the three questions to ask before picking a cover subject, and the two colors that always drive up newsstand sales. That was a bit of a tease," White acknowledges, "sort of like those coverlines we all use."

And so, with the confession of an itty-bitty fib, begins the oversubscribed ASME program. White has seemingly set exactly the right tone. Covers serve many functions, but chief among them is the come-on - or, more accurately, the come-on-in, the content's fine. If this sometimes requires the creation of a cover that distorts the truth, well, what magazine hasn't gone there? It's brutal out on the newsstand. Do you know a magazine editor who hasn't twisted himself (or herself) into knots trying to concoct a cover that is all at once powerful, enticing, gorgeous, and honest?

As it turns out, the first directive White imparts is immeasurably more cryptic than anything the ASME literature has promised. "I once had an assistant who gave me this little pearl of wisdom about creating covers that I've never forgotten," she tells her audience. "She said, 'I know that a magazine cover works when I look at it and I feel the urge to lick it.' "

Okay, well, we all have our personal demons to deal with.

When it comes to creating covers, some editors rely on that kind of strong visceral reaction, while others swear by ritualistic checklists. Some tweak their way through 30 iterations; others scrape it together seconds before the close. Whatever the process, the objective is the same. "Everyone is looking for anything that will help them stand out in a sea of magazines," says Marlene Kahan, ASME's executive director. "Everyone is looking to improve newsstand sales." Fall out of favor on the newsstand, and your magazine is doomed.

As a measure of a magazine's vitality, newsstand sales now trump all else. Editors' contracts are renewed or allowed to lapse based on newsstand numbers. And so in war rooms across the industry, editors and their art directors obsess over cover treatments. "You always have to be looking at where you're going," says White. "After you've had that huge seller, that's when you have to start the refreshing process. When you're at the top of your game, you have to start to think about what you'll do next."

Though cover trends may be fascinating to observe, one has to bear in mind that there are no hard rules by which to live. Weeklies can't really adhere to the same guidelines as monthlies, and what sells amid the fashion set would sink a business book. But editors at the top newsstand magazines say there are some shared characteristics among their recent best-sellers. Here's the latest intelligence on what it takes to create a blockbuster.

COVERLINES

Coverlines are the deciding "buy factor," say editors, and they can account for as much as 90 percent of a cover's impact. "Even with the wrong model and colors, it doesn't seem to make that much of a difference if the coverlines are great," says Catherine Cassidy, editor-in-chief of Prevention. "It's when we're firing on all cylinders on the coverlines that we have the big newsstand successes."

While no one really agrees on a magical number of words - Forbes editor William Baldwin averages 10 for a cover story, Woman's Day editor-in-chief Jane Chesnutt uses about four - the consensus on the preferred mix is: short and punchy.

"Now I go with the three-second sell because that's what I've got - three seconds to catch you," Bonnie Fuller, editor-in-chief of US Weekly, told the ASME attendees in January. "There's so much competition on the newsstand, so I go for coverlines with two, three, or four words - short and concise. There's no time to be clever." You have to fight the urge to write coy coverlines, she says. "We get bored, so we get playful, but clarity is so important."

"Coverlines need to be transparent. You need to understand them instantly," says Ellen Levine, editor-in-chief of Good Housekeeping. "Too cute, too esoteric, is a big mistake."

Today's two-word coverlines are a "sign of a confident publication," says The Atlantic Monthly art director Mary Parsons. "Plus, the more type you have, the less impact you're able to convey with your image."

The effort to de-clutter is notable among the recently redesigned women's service books Family Circle, Ladies' Home Journal, and Woman's Day. All three are creating cleaner, airy looks for themselves. "Everybody was packing bells and whistles, starbursts, and wows. We thought, if you can pack in 12 messages, you can sell more copies," says Family Circle editor-in-chief Susan Ungaro. "But over time, that lost its uniqueness and actually made coverlines harder to read. Now we've determined that clean definitely works better than clutter."