Monday, August 30, 2010
REALITY CHECK: American Society of Magazine Editors 2010 Best Cover Contest, News & Business
I love editors. They are very smart. They are super conversationalists at cocktail parties. They read more, travel more and typically have better expense accounts than most circulation professionals I know. Most editors know how to have fun. I wish I had been an editor. Frankly, I am jealous. That’s the truth.

{Terry Sellwood, whose wit is legendary, once said:  “Ad Directors get all the money.  Editors get the awards.  And Circulators get the complaints.” }

But when it comes to covers, something strange sometimes happens. Editors ocassionally stop having fun, become uptight, rigid, earnest and territorial. And when it comes to covers that editors nominate for awards, they are often not smart at all.

Too often the covers that win awards have no relationship whatsoever with achieving key goals: improving newsstand sales with core demographic targets; attracting a broader audience of new readers from newsstands; increasing subs from insert cards; creating controversy that generates free PR and drives newsstand sales and traffic to a magazine’s web site.

All of these things in turn drive renewal rates, make advertisers happy, which in turn generates money to invest in editorial.

I think it is great that ASME has partnered with Amazon.com.  Very cool and smart, actually.  I love it.  Asking web browsers to vote on their favourite covers helps expand our reach and sex appeal.  Plus, Amazon is helping us sell product.  It’s great to see the collaboration between editors and circulators to expand our audiences.

But let’s face it, readers have already voted…with their wallets.   We can look to ABC statistics for some insights into what our customers actually did with their money.

Let’s start with the first category, News & Business.  Here are the covers that the editors have nominated:

ASME News & Business nominees
ASME News & Business nominees


Editors presumably have their pulse on what is newsworthy, right?

Reality Check on Fortune Cover:

According to ABC statistics, the nominated cover sold 16,724 copies.  Their average for the 12 issues published in the Jul/Dec 2009 period was 25,438.  Therefore this cover sold 34% worse than the average issue.  Newsflash:  Fortune’s fortunes not improved.  Not newsworthy, not good for business.

Reality Check on The Atlantic Cover:

According to ABC statistics, the nominated cover sold 38,743 copies.  Their average for the Jan/Jun 2010 period was 39,950. This cover may be powerful visually, but clearly it failed to generate enough excitement for people to put down their TV remotes, get off their fat rear ends, and waddle over to the newsstand.

Reality Check on the New Yorker Cover:

According to ABC statistics, the nominated cover sold 31,400 copies.  Their average for the Jan/Jun 2010 period was 31,178.  Two issues later, New Yorker sold 54,700 copies, or 74% more copies.

Reality Check on the Time Cover:

This fabulous classic portrait of Steve Jobs hit the mark.  According to ABC statistics, it sold 93,300 copies.  Their average for the rate base period was 72,164.  Therefore this cover sold 29% more copies.  Of the 25 covers in this rate base period, only two others sold more copies…impressive.  I think we have a winner.

(Note:  the other two covers are not ABC audited.  I love the Advocate cover.  It could easily be nominated…and win…for the Funniest category).

We will break down the other categories in future posts on CoversSell.com. And report back with the results.
- Scott Bullock
About Me
Scott Bullock

 
Scott Bullock is the the creator of Coverssell.com. Bullock has worked as circulation director for both consumer and B2B magazines including Toronto Life and FASHION. If you have a great cover to share, please send all submissions to 
scottbullock(at)rogers(dot)com

Note to readers: some of Bullock's posts may refer to his clients.
Most Recent Blog Comment
Kelly says:
Any news on how it performed on newsstands?...
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