Magazine Editors Explain Weird Cover Numerology

BoSacks Speaks Out
Magazine Editors Explain Weird Cover Numerology

John Koblin of the New York Observer recently asked the following excellent question about magazine covers. Why all the MEANINGLESS NUMBERS?

I have wondered for years about that. I can only guess that they are an effective sales tool. But if a cover states 785 fashion and beauty tips like Lucky did, is that really possible? Is it really readable once you are in the magazine? Do these claims have any read editorial integrity? Or like the cover of Men's Health that offered 1,293 tips on something or other, is there anyone out there who has the patience to read or even scan 1,293 of anything?

I paraphrase Winston Churchill when I say that magazine covers "are a puzzle, inside a riddle, wrapped in an enigma". I have been studying them for years. I used to post in my office wall in several huge publishing houses every cover produced and the sales results of those covers. I would sit and ponder the variables and the results with friends, publishers and editors alike. Yes, there are "supposed" patterns of success to deduce. But there is no real universal truth or rule. In my studied opinion each success is title independent. What works for one niche does not necessarily work for another. That is sad but true.

Here are some of the answers or explanations from the horse's mouths:

"It's both a promise to the reader and a great graphic device."
"I have to like the number. Sometimes I'll have 75 items and I'll like number 67 better."
-Kate White, editor, Cosmopolitan

"The smaller the number and the more specific, the better."
-David Zinczenko, editor, Men's Health

"With the bigger ones we'll take an average where we say, 'O.K., we have 8 tips per page and 140 editorial pages and hence we have 1,100 tips in the magazine.'"
-David Zinczenko, editor, Men's Health

"Our research department literally just counted the number of products we had in the issue and that's the total we had," of the "218 Best Buys"
James Baker, editorial director of Real Simple

"We'll assign a research assistant or a hapless intern to try to count up most of the tips in the magazine and find some way to quantify for the cover of the magazine,"
-David Zinczenko, editor, Men's Health"

We decided in August or so that we wanted to do 365 beauty ideas in the beauty section for our January [2008] issue. The beauty department commissioned 365, and there was some last-minute talk if there should be 366 beauty ideas for the leap year, but we decided against it."
-Cindi Leive, editor, Glamour

"We'll assign a research assistant or a hapless intern to try to count up most of the tips in the magazine and find some way to quantify for the cover of the magazine."
-David Zinczenko