1) The document outlines the key elements found on magazine front covers such as the masthead, price/issue details, main cover line, cover lines, plugs, and puffs. 2) It then analyzes an example front cover, noting how the large red masthead draws the eye to the featured photo and main cover line about an article. 3) Smaller cover lines below with accompanying photos advertise less important articles, and plugs on the bottom use puffs to attract attention in contrast to the small plain text of the plugs.

1. Magazine Analysis. (Front Cover)
Ryan Ward.

2. Elements of a front cover.
• Mast head – The ‘big’ title/logo that is more often that not positioned at
the top of the front cover of a magazine.
• Price, Issue ‘number’/date, Bar code – Straight forward.
• Main cover line – The main article that a magazine contains/focuses on. It
is usually advertised through use of big, attractive text, and is usually
accompanied by a ‘Feature article photo’, which is also more often that
not rather large, and aims to attract the ‘audience’.
• Cover line/’s – Other ‘less important’ articles that the magazine contains.
These are advertised through smaller text and also accompanied by a
smaller photo to go with it most of the time.
• Plugs – Selling points of a magazine, that are made less obvious than Main
cover lines/Cover lines etc. They may be in a list at the side of the
magazine cover, or at the bottom along the width of the cover perhaps.
• Puffs – Short ‘phrases’ that rapidly attract the audience’s attention. E.g.
‘FREE!’

3. Analysis of an actual Front Cover.
Price and Issue Puff.
‘number’.
Mast Head.
Feature article
photo.
Main cover line.
Cover line.
Puff.
Bar-Code.
Plug.

4. Analysis of a Front Cover continued...
• The Mast Head of this particular front cover spans the whole width of the magazine, and is in
big, red text. The colour red is ‘apparently’ very attractive to the male eye, so by making the
Mast Head big and red the editors of ‘Empire’ are potentially increasing the attraction that
the audience will feel from the magazine. The Mast Head is also slightly cut off by the
‘Feature article photograph’, this is purposely done to draw attention straight from the Mast
Head to the ‘Feature article photograph’ and then obviously onto the ‘Main cover line’, a
smart tactic indeed.
• The Main Cover Line is in very large text, and is placed right in front of the ‘Feature article
photograph’. The large text catches the audiences eye almost instantly, and is also quite
fitting to the general colour theme of the ‘Feature article photograph’ just behind it, to look
smart and professional. This could also be done so that when people are looking at the
photograph, they’ll look at the ‘Main cover line’ almost subconsciously without realising, and
obviously start to read it.
• The Cover Line is placed just below where the ‘Main cover line’ is, and is in smaller text, and
is accompanied by smaller pictures, as obviously these articles aren’t what the magazine is
mainly focused on deeming them ‘less important’. The text is the exact same colour as what
the ‘Main cover line’ is, which is purposely done to make the audience almost subconsciously
move onto and start reading the ‘Cover line’ just after reading the ‘Main cover line’ without
realising, similar to the ‘smart tactic’ I stated above, and also to substitute a general colour
theme the magazine has got going on.
• The plug featured on this particular front cover is placed right at the bottom of the page. The
plug has no pictures to accompany it, and is in small, non-’striking’ text. There are puffs right
next to the plug (Left hand side) that do the job of catching the audiences attention, as they
are in more of a ‘striking’ type of font and fashion, and are coloured red.