What Makes a Best-Selling Magazine Cover?

The cover model can make or break the issue. You probably already know most women’s magazines feature actresses or singers on their covers, usually timed to coincide with a star’s new movie, album, or big project. But if you wonder why some stars pop up more often than others, it’s because certain stars simply sell more magazines. Jennifer Aniston (seen here on Marie Claire’s best-selling issue of 2011), Sarah Jessica Parker, Angelina Jolie, Mila Kunis, Heidi Klum, and Lady Gaga are proven performers. Other celebs don’t fare so well, such as Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, and Fergie, who provided both Lucky and Allure with their worst-selling issues of 2011.

Numbers suggest value, and the higher the number, the greater the value of the information in the magazine—in the reader’s mind, anyway. Editors tend to prefer random, uneven numbers (like 832) to round numbers (like 800). They also know that it doesn’t really matter if there are actually 832 looks—no one’s counting.

Adult women’s magazines tend to feature cover subjects styled simply, with few accessories or busy details. The layouts (like this one, Elle’s 2011 best-seller) are clean, featuring a simple color palette.

However, research shows that teens prefer lots of detail on covers, so teen mag covers are an explosion of fonts, colors, and formatting, with cover subjects wearing louder prints, jewelry, and accessories.

When styling the model or celebrity for the cover of a magazine (like Olivia Wilde’s cover issue of Women’s Health, the best-selling issue of 2011), producers want big, bouncy, blowsy hair. “Not only abundant hair, but the blowing hair is crucial for us,” said Allure Editor-in-Chief Linda Wells in 2008. “The worst thing we can do is a really tight, pulled-back style or a hat.” Olivia—along with her hair—had the second-highest selling issue of Allure in 2011.

Women’s magazine headlines use lots of keywords—“shocking,” “secrets,” “love,” “now,” “easy,” “best,” and most importantly, “sex,” which appears a whopping three times on Cosmo’s August 2011 issue, the best-selling issue of the year. The headlines are short, concise, and easily digestible, promising a better you by the time you finish reading. Exclamation points suggest urgency.

This cover’s layout is meant to draw your attention to a few very specific places: The circular inset draws your gaze to information that’s important—the theme of the magazine, not to mention three powerful keywords—while hot-pink colors highlight the best headlines. The biggest feature in the magazine is promoted in a giant font with two colors.

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