13 September 2010

ASME's Best Magazine Covers 2010



The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) has released its finalists for the fifth annual Best Cover Contest. To be selected, a cover had to have appeared between June 1, 2009 and May 31, 2010. The finalists, as broken down by category, are listed on the Society's website and Amazon.com, so that the public may vote for their favorites.

Can you guess which fashion magazine had multiple covers featured in the contest and which other fashion magazine had zero? If you guessed Harper's Bazaar for the first answer, you'd be correct. And, if you guessed Vogue for the second part, you would also be correct. Yes, Bazaar had four covers selected (which also put them in fourth for most overall nominees right behind New York Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Yorker), including this cover of Kate Hudson. Not surprisingly, all four covers were subscriber covers (i.e. not the boring, generic covers that grace the newsstands). Another fashion magazine, Elle, also had a cover finalist, but it was also a subscriber cover.

That should tell editors something right there. The newsstand covers are just too plain! There is nothing interesting, eye-catching, or provocative about them. It is the subscriber covers that are really catching people's interest, or at least garnering media attention and winning awards. Perhaps Vogue should consider issuing a subscriber cover along with their peers, Harper's Bazaar and Elle?

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