Magazine Cover Review

Magazines have been around for decades and the way people read magazines has changed. Magazines have adapted to this change by including more pictures, more colorful graphics, and less long articles to keep the magazine market going.

In Oprah’s signature magazine she usually has a picture of herself on the front portraying what the content will be. On this seasons issue of the magazine she is wearing an orange sweater to show the Fall season as well as Halloween. The background of her photo is s simple grass field that makes the picture simple and bright. This gives the viewer/reader that simple Fall feeling. The headline on the cover of the magazine says, “Joy in in Mourning”. This shows that there are going to be some articles about finding happiness when things aren’t the best. This is really relevant to the times we are in now because of COVID and getting over being in quarantine, when people see this headline they will be intrigued and feel like they have someone to relate to. Oprah’s intended audience is middle-aged women who like fashion, health, and lifestyle content. The content page in this magazine consists of all women portraying women empowerment and there is also a picture of a zoom call with all women. This shows that even in Corona times women can still come to come together and support each other. 

Another magazine viewed and analyzed was Vogue Magazine. On the cover of the one we reviewed is Rihanna with black and white clothing and a serious look. The clothing she has on is typical clothes that men would wear, a collared button up shirt, this gives off the notion of power and independence. The title underneath her picture is, “Rebel! Rihanna rewrites the rules.” This is in all caps and large lettering especially the word, rebel. This once again shows that independence and power that all women want to have and feel. The first few pages of the magazine are ads for high-end expensive brands such as, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, and much more. To me these ads intrigue the reader to keep looking, because who doesn’t want to look at beautiful expensive things? On the content page of the magazine there are 2 pictures of Rihanna in black and white clothing again, showing consistency. They also add a picture with colored clothing and a background other than one color to mix things up a little. Further into the magazine is more consistency of Rihanna modeling black and white clothing with serious looks. 

Sports Illustrated Magazine is another one we reviewed. This magazine has strategy as related to their typical audience. Sports Illustrated is known for news on different sports. The Sports Illustrated magazine that we viewed was the swimsuit edition, which has absolutely nothing to do with sports, however, given the typical audience of this magazine, men, it makes some sense. The content page shows a woman in a white swimsuit with a dark background, this draws your attention to the lady and swimsuit because of the color contrast. Further in the magazine, there is a page with bathing suit models of different shapes, sizes, and ethnicities. I think the intention of this page is to show men that all women look good in swimsuits not just the blonde, white girls that are typically on swimsuit magazines. 

In addition, Southern Living Magazine is another one that targets a very specific audience. This southern living magazine was the food edition and fall themed. This magazine is intended for people who live/want to live in the south, as well as people who love to cook and decorate according to seasons and follow aesthetics. The cover was full of Fall colors such as different shades of oranges and browns. The cover also had a Fall cake on the front intriguing the viewer because it looks so amazing. The magazine consisted of many beautiful pictures of aesthetic decoration ideas, cooking ideas, and numerous pages of different southern fall dishes. People now more than ever just love to look at pleasing pictures of décor, food, and places. A magazine that is over the top with pictures that lure in the viewer is Condé Nast Traveler Magazine. The whole magazine consists of many pictures of beautiful places that everyone would like to visit one day. The pictures really grab your attention due to the limited reading of the whole magazine. The text around the pictures is small white text focusing your attention on the pictures and letting them speak for themselves.

Magazines have more pictures than ever before; most magazines now resemble movie posters more closely than they do the dry pages of a book. This is due to the shorter attention span of our generation as well as being super busy, according to Michael Scherer. "Back when Rolling Stone was publishing these seven-thousand-word stories, there was no CNN and no Internet.” Now people just don’t have as much time to read (Ed Needham, 2002), explaining why magazines have cut down on the long articles and increased picture content.