Magazine Cover Key Features

I found a picture of an existing magazine cover and picked out the key features from the magazine cover.

MASTHEAD - The masthead on the magazine is the large font (usually in the top-left of the page), which displays the magazine name. The masthead in some magazines (such as the one pictured above) is often obscured slightly by the main image, due to the fact that the magazine's name is already rather well-know. In certain magazines where it does not have a higher popularity, the main image will be placed behind the masthead, to ensure the name is then made clear to those who would not have otherwise heard of it.

MAIN IMAGE - The main image is the picture which takes up the majority of the magazine cover. The picture is usually very eye-catching and relates in some way to the genre of the magazine. More often than not, the Main Sell Line relates to the image, and is linked to it in some way.

MAIN SELL LINE - The main sell line is the large text which is evidently visible on the front of the magazine cover. It is normally in bold or standout colours to attract the readers attention, and then written cleverly and ambiguously as to not give the reader too much information about the story, but entice them enough to pick up a copy of the magazine and read the full story after they buy it.

SUBHEADINGS - A subheading is usually a smaller piece of text which is placed underneath the main sell line, to relay more extra information to the consumer. If the reader is interested in the story via the main sell line, they may look for the sub-heading to find even more information. This is just another way to further entice the reader to buy the magazine for themselves.

SELL LINES - The sell lines are the smaller news stories which, much like the main sell line, do not give too much information about the story, but enough to make the reader want to buy a copy of the magazine for themselves to find out more. They could be names of articles (such as 50 best albums of the year etc.) or just general stories.

ESSENTIAL INFO - The essential information is usually the smallest text on the main cover. It relays the information of the issue date and issue price to the consumer. The reason this text is so small is because they do not want the price to be the focal selling point of the magazine, and would want the reader to focus initially on the Sell Lines and Main Image.

BARCODE - The barcode is an essential part of a magazine cover, as it holds all of the information regarding the price. It relays this information to the retailer when the consumer is purchasing the magazine.