MediaSlut (@MediaSlut)’s choice of the best international magazine covers this week:
- New York Times Magazine
- The Advocate
- Time Out London (The Sex Issue)
- Volkskrant Magazine
- PAPER
INTERNATIONAL
New York Times Magazine, 16 November 2014
Absolutely brilliant! Definitely one of my favourite covers of 2014 — such a simple concept and yet, at the same time, deep as well (when you think about it properly…).
So, for the cover story about “failure” (read the full story “Welcome to the Failure Age” here), the NYT team is showing one of its ‘failed’ covers for this issue, which in turn makes the final cover everything other than a failure!
The Advocate, December 2014/January 2015
Yes, Vladimer Putin is The Advocate’s Person of the Year! But this title means the opposite of what eg TIME gives out every year.
The Advocate (all about “Gay News, LGBT Rights, Politics, Entertainment”) is giving him this (irony may also be found in the placement of this title…) because “[d]riving the governmental, religious, and popular disdain for gays and lesbians, the Russian president became the single greatest threat to LGBTs in the world in 2014”.
So, yes, Putin totally deserves to be “Person of the Year”. Read the full article here.
Time Out London, 11 November 2014
Last year, Time Out London made my Top 10 Best International Magazine Covers list for its “Sex in London” cover, which was pure genius, and the New York magazine also blew me away last year with the Orgy-Art-inspired Sex Issue cover.
This year, for the sex issue, Time Out London has kept it simple by revealing just a little, which in turn is a bit too much…
Volkskrant Magazine
I first went “What…?” when I first saw the cover, but then I figured out it’s about (sexual) preferences among guys. It makes a lot of sense, and is brilliant (even though vulgar…).
Volkskrant Magazine had a survey where it looked at different aspects which turn different guys on, and it seems the belly button also made the list.
PAPER, Winter 2014
The reason that I’m including them is because PAPER (which I’ve never heard of before) did what it set out to do: “Break the internet”.
It’s almost as if a massive marketing plan has been coming together perfectly, as the magazine is on everyone’s lips and fingertips (for good and bad reasons, variously but, either way, people are talking about it). It’s what case studies are made of!
And, for that reason only, I’m including it in my weekly post. Want more reading material?
- PAPER: PAPER article and interview with Kim Kardashian (NSFW)
- theGrio: Kim Kardashian doesn’t realize she’s the butt of an old racial joke
- Mashable: Kim Kardashian’s butt breaks the Internet with memes (Hysterical! A must-read/watch!)
- Gawker: Buzzfeed Photoshopped Kim K to Look Like She Hadn’t Been Photoshopped
- USA Today: Kim K’s behind in ‘Paper’: Is it real or is it Photoshop?
Find a cover we should know about? Tweet us at @Marklives and @MediaSlut.
Want to view all the covers at a glance?
See our MagLove Pinboard!
MagLove by @MediaSlut is a regular slot featuring the best local and international magazine covers every week, recognising well thought-out, powerful and interesting (and hopefully all three-in-one) covers and celebrating the mix of pragmatism, creativity and personal taste that created each of them. The (for now anonymous) blogger behind MediaSlut knows way too much for his own good about media in South Africa, magazines in particular. His mission is to show when SA magazines fail but, most importantly, also when they succeed. If you’re looking for a library about SA magazines and news, this is your one-stop pitstop.
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