Magazine Front Cover Conventions

Magazine Front Cover Conventions

Left Third - The stories that appear down the left hand side of the magazine. When many magazines are lined up on a magazine rack or shelf, the left third and masthead  are visible to the reader so the most important stories are always viewable.

Mast Head - The magazine's title. Usually displayed in the top left corner for reasons above.

Barcode - Read electronically and decoded into usable information by a barcode scanner.

Splash - The front cover overall (i.e. the masthead + the headlines + the main image)

Kicker - a smaller font headline often underlined


Graphics - Graphical shapes to highlight feature(s)

Graphology - Is the colour scheme, the font scheme and the way the images and text are arranged.

Colour Scheme - Specific / stylistic / thematic types.

Screamers - A screamer is a different type of headline which is written with the goal of drawing attention to the article beneath it. While all headlines arguably serve this function, screamers demand attention, insisting that readers turn to the article in question immediately and without delay.

Cover Lines - One line on the front of a title of a top story inside

Sell Lines - Short, sharp description of the title's main marketing point (e.g for Cosmopolitan: 'The world's No 1 magazine for young women')

Teaser - One word/phrase acts as an attention grabber

Anchorage - Fixing of meaning. E.g while the text on its own might not make much sense, the image behind it may anchor a meaning to the text and vica versa

Vocabulary - Using appropriate language and words which best match the language the target audience use

Images - Size: CU to MCU. Ranges from one main image to x amount featuring one main image and smaller images. Helps make the page look more interesting. It can add understanding of a story and/or entice someone to read the magazine.