Magazine Front Cover Conventions

Masthead – The magazine’s title. Usually displayed in the top left corner.

Bar code – One word/phrase acts as an attention grabber.

Dateline – Weekly: Usually from Saturday to Friday. Monthly: a month ahead.

Skyline – bits of information that gives an indication the contents of a magazine.

Colour Scheme – Specific/stylistic/thematic types

Images – Size: CU to med Cu. 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.

Flash – Text that gives a hint about an exclusive piece of news.

Left Third – The left third of the magazine cover is vital for sales in shops where the magazine is not shown full-frontage. The title must be easily recognisable in a display of dozens of competitors.

Cover lines – Headlines in the magazine.

Sell Lines - Short, sharp description of the title's main marketing point

Splash – Everything on the front cover, sell lines.

Screamers – A screamer is a distinctive headline which has been written with the goal of drawing attention to the article beneath it.

Kicker – A kicker is a smaller-font headline, often underlined, just above the main headline. Kickers are often a one or two word identifier used to help readers select articles. Ideally, kickers classify articles.

Anchorage – Gives the image meaning


Graphics - Graphical shapes to highlight feature


Teaser - One word/phrase to grab readers attention