Magazine Cover Review

             My initial impressions of the magazine covers were that they all appealed to their target audience and that was very evident through the font style and colors that were used on the covers. Viewers could clearly distinguish which gender the magazine was intended for. The more masculine magazines tended to have a rougher font choice with very bold issues such as politics. None of the women’s magazines brought up any political topics whatsoever. Opra’s magazine, The Oprah Magazine, featured Breonna Taylor on the cover of the September issue in 2020 (The Oprah Magazine 2020, September). This was the only magazine that brought up anything even somewhat controversial. The men’s magazines would just flat out state that there would be politics discussed in that particular issue right on the cover page. The men’s magazine also all seemed to follow a red, white and black font color selection. Motor Trends and Men’s Journal both did this in their magazine on pages such as the contents page (Motor Trends 2020, August) (Men's Journal 2020, September). Along with this font color, the men’s magazines also seemed to have more text for their feature article. This was surprising considering there is somewhat of a stereotype that men have a shorter attention span and would read sorter articles compared to women. After reading the article, Chances are you won't bother to read this article. It is just one long block of text, after all, unbroken by alluring pictures, snappy captions, or eye-grabbing infographics. You can't click it. You can't flip it. All you can do is read it. (Does Size Matter?), it is evident that magazines with longer articles are not selling as well but this is believed to be from a greater selection of magazines, not off the length of the articles inside (Scherer 2002, November-December). This is still a concept to consider if I do choose to create a magazine as my portfolio project.

The featured articles and limited editions helped the magazine companies secure their audience and even bring in new audiences. This also helped them make a name for themselves. For example, Sports Illustrate is known for its swimsuit editions. These issues have nothing to do with sports, just models in swimsuits however tons of people still purchase them, and it has become part of Sports Illustrated brand. This issue also helped them gain a new audience and keep that audience. Sports Illustrated even began to include women of all ethnic races and body types to appeal to their ever-changing audience(Sports Illustrated 2020, July). Covers and special editions have a certain way of hooking the audience and persuade them into flipping through the pages while standing in the check-out line.

All these magazines contained advertisements for on product or another yet, they were all tailored to the sort of audience that would be buying that brand of magazine. Higher-end magazines such as Vogue, have advertisements for high-end products such as Prada and Gucci (Vogue 2020, May). Vogue is not going to advertise for anything that does not coincide with their brand. Most magazines follow this rule of thumb. One will never find an ad for work tools in a food based magazine. This is simply because if one is reading a certain type of magazine it is more likely they will buy something of that same concept. completely unrelated ad will also break up the flow of the magazine and can even confuse the reader on what the magazine is truly focused on.

Currently I am leaning towards the magazine. However, there is a lot to consider when creating the magazine. I would have to create a magazine with a brand for itself with only one issue to do so. I think I could execute this project well, especially if I read more articles like Chances are you won't bother to read this article. It is just one long block of text, after all, unbroken by alluring pictures, snappy captions, or eye-grabbing infographics. You can't click it. You can't flip it. All you can do is read it. (Does Size Matter?) and take into consideration the pointers Scherer provides (Scherer, November-December). This article provided great examples and reports from studies done talking about the statistics from the ever-changing world of magazines and their audiences.  This informs me of what types of magazines are selling and which are sitting on the shelves. Articles like this would help me decide what to include in my magazine, if I choose the magazine as my portfolio project.