Oct 29th, 2007
National Magazine Cover Archive
If you are into magazines as much as I am, you’ll definitely appreciate this site. The National Magazine Cover Archive has selected a hand full of some great magazines and started collecting images of their past covers. In what the site calls “dark days for magazine design with homogenisation and closure of many well known (and loved) titles” this site is a fresh look back into the glory days of editorial design. Some people say magazines are dead, but I think that’s not the case, the current state of the internet vs. magazines is just pushing out all the bad writing and lackluster photos. I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon, but I think the same will happen for websites. The over saturation of blogs and online magazines can only last for so long. it’s going to come to a point when the legit sites will be thriving and all the other half-ass copy and paste blogs will loose all their viewers. I guess when you think of it like that, it’s a completely different conversation because the money, time, and people power it takes to run a magazine is completely different to amount of money and time it takes to run a blog… In any case, we are living in an exciting time right now with the transitions that are going on and even though things are shifting more towards the internet, you should never forget about the quality and experience you get from sitting down and enjoying a well written, well design magazine.
Check out the National Magazine Cover Archive here.
I’ve spent much time thinking about this as well and I agree. The internet is just forcing magazines to carve out its own niche, its audience more specialized and appreciative.
Some of those Time and Grafik covers are amazing…
Actually, are there any studies being done on the size of magazines lately? I’d imagine the average physical size of them to go up considering they are becoming more like monthly-quarterly books than weekly ‘newsletters.’
I’m actually working for a magazine that recently decided to go to the web. Based on the fact of reaching more viewers and utilizing mp3’s and videos throughout the “issue”. Yet, they still plan on one print issue a year, more like a book to keep people, like ourselves, psyched on having something to hold, feel, inspect, or even read. I was pushing for a larger print format, since it is more of a specialized item, but was turned down due to costs. I’m currently trying to talk them into a hard cover, since it’s fairly large. The internet is carving a niche for online mags, or “issues”. But you can’t beat looking at a high quality print piece, while you sit with your tea or coffee when you have nothing to do.
Yah, I think magazines should look at their issues like a “book” and less of a place to get breaking news. something that you want to keep around forever and something that, when you look at it a few years later, gets you psyched and takes you back to that era, with more content that captures what’s going on during that period on a larger scale. Rather than mundane “news” details that get old after a few hours on the web.
J. No doubt a large print annual is dope but don’t discount something smaller in size. Check the new issue of Wax Poetics for big things in a small package.
Thanks Nate! I’ll have to look into that. I’m not down playing small/monthly magazines by any means. I think one of the best magazines I’ve ever received was a 50+ page, Bi-weekly ‘zine, that’s the size of a business card. I guess it ran for about 6 months, then there was loss of interest. Quite impressive articles, legible, and photos too. Best of all it has a magnet on the backside so you can place it on your fridge. Nothing wrong with compact, nothing at all. But I can only see the higher quality, large magazines wanting to make larger pages, or thicker books, to keep viewer interest high, or to keep it growing.
Along the lines of what Harrison wrote, I couldn’t agree more. I still have an old Burton book from ‘98(I think) that I look at from time to time. It feels good to open a well made piece.