There are a lot of magazine fans online who collect and post images of their favorite covers, including the website Coverjunkie and the Magazine Covers page on Pinterest. Some wait until the end of the year to post a collection of their favorites from the past 12 months.
Let’s look at 2012 magazines, for instance. (I’ll cover 2013 magazines in a separate post.)
It took the American Society of Magazine Editors until May 2013 to announce the winners of its annual contest for best magazine covers of 2012. (See article by the Huffington Post.)
Ad Age ran a retrospective called “2012 in 10 Great Magazine Covers, From New York to Interview Russia.”
Other websites were more specialized in their cover selections.
Business Insider ran a collection called “The 38 Best News And Politics Magazine Covers Of The Last Year.”
Time magazine chose the “Top Photographic Magazine Covers of 2012.”
And Creative Bloq featured its favorite artistic magazine covers of 2012.
Posted with this article are 10 magazine covers I found particularly provocative from 2012.
Sex sells
Sexy magazine covers are a staple of the industry.
ESPN magazine has its annual Body Issue, featuring athletes in their birthday suits. Tennis player Daniela Hantuchova (top) graced one of several covers for the 2012 issue. Mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey was on another.
The queen of all sexy magazine covers is the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. The 2012 issue featured model Kate Upton on the cover for the first time, which generated some controversy, according to the Washington Post.
Maxim magazine is no stranger to sexy magazine covers.
In March 2013, Maxim readers chose the April 2012 issue featuring Jennifer Love Hewitt as its Sexiest Cover ever. The contest was to commemorate Maxim’s 16th anniversary.
Controversy sells
Controversial covers help drive newsstand sales of magazines as well.
Time magazine’s May 21, 2012, cover featuring a woman breast-feeding her 3-year-old son was one of the year’s most controversial. It was for a story about attachment parenting with the headline “Are You Mom Enough?” It also generated a lot of parody covers.
Newsweek’s Aug. 27, 2012, issue featured a take-down of President Barack Obama with the cover headline “Hit the Road, Barack. Why We Need a New President.” The attack story was criticized for its tone and accuracy. (It generated coverage by The Week, New York Magazine, Business Insider and Entertainment Weekly.)
The issue was a big hit with readers though, with newsstand sales double the magazine’s average, Ad Age reported.
Just a few months later, Newsweek published its last print issue. That Dec. 31, 2012, issue was praised for its understated cover.
Rival Time magazine was applauded for its May 7, 2012, cover and story titled “The Last Days of Osama bin Laden.”
New York Magazine used a dramatic photo of the partial blackout of Manhattan for its Nov. 12, 2012, issue titled “The City and the Storm.”
Bloomberg Businessweek tapped into the public’s fascination with zombie movies and TV shows for its cover story on Best Buy. The Oct. 22-28, 2012, issue referred to the consumer electronics retailer as a “Big Box Zombie” along with blue-shirted walking dead.
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