The Monthly continues to deliver excellent covers which cut through the visual noise in a newsagency. We are featuring the latest issue as our magazine of the week. While other retailers are paid a fee by publishers to feature titles, we do it because we believe in a title – a recommendation our customers can trust.
As a publisher I’d be really interested to here comments about what you think makes an “excellent” cover?
It is purely about standing out from the crowd in terms of the design, or do the headlines actually matter?
Andrew
For me it is a cover which breaks through the tremendous visual noise in a newsagency. This could be the headline, the graphic or both.
Mark
It may be beneficial for pubishers to develop a reltionship with a number of newsagents in your local area.
Use mockups to see how the cover will actually look in-store, amidst the visual noise. If it doesn’t stand out there is the oportunity to take it back to the drawing board before it goes to print.
I remember seeing a book a while back, i think it was called “the dangerous book for boys” or something similar. the staff at the store said they thought it wouldn’t sell because of it’s “bland” cover, but later found out that the book stood out quite well in contrast to the other visually-heavy titles around it.
the book sold well apparently.
I believe that the headlines certainly can pull a consumer but overall the biggest mistake, I believe, that a publisher can make is not changing the color backdrop on monthly magazines, the consumer, mistakenly thinks that he/she has that copy consequently lost sale.