Judging by the Cover
September 21, 2018 6:49 AM Subscribe
How the magazine industry’s identity crisis is playing out on its front page: Print may be dying, but the magazine cover still plays an essential role in defining—and sustaining—a media brand. Can the cover outlive the magazine?
Well, the record album cover didn't, so I don't know.
posted by Melismata at 7:39 AM on September 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Melismata at 7:39 AM on September 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
Well, the record album cover didn't, so I don't know.
Spotify does something interesting with various albums and songs, they've paired up with Genius and lyrics and factoids about the track display as you're listening. Not all albums/tracks have this, some just display the album cover, but it's an interesting evolution of that artwork.
posted by Fizz at 8:32 AM on September 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
Spotify does something interesting with various albums and songs, they've paired up with Genius and lyrics and factoids about the track display as you're listening. Not all albums/tracks have this, some just display the album cover, but it's an interesting evolution of that artwork.
posted by Fizz at 8:32 AM on September 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
Well, the record album cover didn't, so I don't know.
And neither can a magazine cover. Both are relics of a bygone era. Records, by their sheer size and monopoly, were works of art, starting from the cover, to the title, and then the songs and their placement. The artist had control of the image and message. That doesn't happen now.
Magazines are also the same. You cannot project to a fragmented audiences, and in a lot of ways, it is a big relief. I never could stand magazine covers. Men were fully dressed, strapping, dignified, and shown as powerful without having to dazzle some fake scowling "smile", while women were semi-clad, rail thin, in some unnatural pose with a smile that's all gums because she has to be happy, happy, happy, and not have to bother trying to change the world because, you know, she's too pretty and silly for that.
Magazines are dead, and their covers serve as a tombstone for a time when they set our agendas as they instructed us how to think and what to strive for. They were, at the time, the vehicle for disseminating specialized topics with longer reads. The Internet made it obsolete.
We are in a transitory period right now, and images can always make a comeback -- with a different form and purpose...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 8:36 AM on September 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
And neither can a magazine cover. Both are relics of a bygone era. Records, by their sheer size and monopoly, were works of art, starting from the cover, to the title, and then the songs and their placement. The artist had control of the image and message. That doesn't happen now.
Magazines are also the same. You cannot project to a fragmented audiences, and in a lot of ways, it is a big relief. I never could stand magazine covers. Men were fully dressed, strapping, dignified, and shown as powerful without having to dazzle some fake scowling "smile", while women were semi-clad, rail thin, in some unnatural pose with a smile that's all gums because she has to be happy, happy, happy, and not have to bother trying to change the world because, you know, she's too pretty and silly for that.
Magazines are dead, and their covers serve as a tombstone for a time when they set our agendas as they instructed us how to think and what to strive for. They were, at the time, the vehicle for disseminating specialized topics with longer reads. The Internet made it obsolete.
We are in a transitory period right now, and images can always make a comeback -- with a different form and purpose...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 8:36 AM on September 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
Magazines are dead, and their covers serve as a tombstone for a time when they set our agendas as they instructed us how to think and what to strive for.
I like how you phrased this, because as the article was interesting and did touch upon this notion, it didn't delve quite as deeply into this idea -- it was more subtext to the article, I think, given that they interviewed the actual tastemakers as opposed to the consumers.
posted by knownassociate at 8:47 AM on September 21, 2018
I like how you phrased this, because as the article was interesting and did touch upon this notion, it didn't delve quite as deeply into this idea -- it was more subtext to the article, I think, given that they interviewed the actual tastemakers as opposed to the consumers.
posted by knownassociate at 8:47 AM on September 21, 2018
Here's my (very) small contribution to the history of magazine covers. Many years ago, one aspect of my job was to train designers and print production folks how to be more efficient.
In one particular gig, I was in the offices of Entertainment Weekly and noticed that their method for creating the effect of the subject(s) superimposed in front of the cover name (example) was way more complicated than in needed to be. It was actually a problem, because the massive file size and amount of time it took to build was a point of stress. Each week they would be rushing to complete the cover before the deadline and half that time was waiting for the screen to render, etc. (This was in the bad old days of the Mac when system crashes were a daily thing).
I showed them how to accomplish the exact same effect using Photoshop layer masks, saving them hours of time. They were so nervous about trying it out, but it worked and every time I see EW, I like to think of my footnote in cover history.
posted by jeremias at 10:38 AM on September 21, 2018 [5 favorites]
In one particular gig, I was in the offices of Entertainment Weekly and noticed that their method for creating the effect of the subject(s) superimposed in front of the cover name (example) was way more complicated than in needed to be. It was actually a problem, because the massive file size and amount of time it took to build was a point of stress. Each week they would be rushing to complete the cover before the deadline and half that time was waiting for the screen to render, etc. (This was in the bad old days of the Mac when system crashes were a daily thing).
I showed them how to accomplish the exact same effect using Photoshop layer masks, saving them hours of time. They were so nervous about trying it out, but it worked and every time I see EW, I like to think of my footnote in cover history.
posted by jeremias at 10:38 AM on September 21, 2018 [5 favorites]
Online magazine storefronts have not implemented animated gifs of covers, but target.com's emails use them for the covers of the weekly circulars. I'm now afraid of everything that falls out of a Sunday newspaper...
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:11 PM on September 21, 2018
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:11 PM on September 21, 2018
Can the cover outlive the magazine?
As we used to say back when I was a magazine editor, when a headline ends in a question mark, the answer is always no.
posted by bassomatic at 5:09 PM on September 21, 2018
As we used to say back when I was a magazine editor, when a headline ends in a question mark, the answer is always no.
posted by bassomatic at 5:09 PM on September 21, 2018
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posted by Fizz at 7:17 AM on September 21, 2018