Print editors on how a cover image can become a cultural moment.
A great magazine has the power to stop you in your tracks, and I’ll never forget the first time a cover did this to me. In fact, I still have a copy on my bookshelf. It was the December 2002 issue of British Vogue, and the cover stars were Sir Elton John, seated at a white Yamaha piano, with Elizabeth Hurley perched on top, her long legs wrapped around his torso.
Metallic stars were dotted across the entire image, and the cover lines simply read: “You are invited to our Party Special.” It was dazzling in its campness, fabulously festive and a total snapshot of the time. Elton John had just released his compilation album Greatest Hits 1970 – 2002 and was on tour, while earlier in the year Hurley had given birth to her son Damian and starred in Serving Sara alongside Matthew Perry.
A single cover image can crystallise a cultural mood, define a decade, and even launch stars. From Vogue’s original 1950s close-up portraits to Anna Wintour’s game-changing debut as editor-in-chief in 1988, featuring Israeli model Michaela Bercu in a bejewelled Christian Lacroix jacket and jeans, the art of the magazine cover has always balanced instinct and intellect with commerce and creativity.
But what is it that makes a truly great magazine cover? And in an era where algorithms dictate what we see, can that same alchemy that defined the days when print ruled still exist?
Era-defining covers
A magazine cover at its best is a reflection of its time. Consider Vanity Fair’s 1991 cover featuring a pregnant, naked, and unapologetically powerful Demi Moore, or Rolling Stone’s 1993 image of Janet Jackson, topless with then-husband René Elizondo’s hands covering her chest. These weren’t just photographs, they were a medium for conversation which provoked strong reactions from both sides of the coin.
For Jacqui Loates-Haver, property editor at Stuff and former editor of iconic New Zealand titles including Kia Ora, New Idea and NZ Herald’s Reset, the best covers have always had the ability to create an emotional and then behavioural response, giving the reader a defined sense of what they’re about to experience within the magazine’s pages and initiating the path to purchase.
Loates-Haver still remembers the impact of Vanity Fair’s Caitlyn Jenner cover in 2015: “It was a beautiful shot of her in a satin basque with one coverline: ‘Call Me Caitlyn’. It was simple, but incredibly powerful on many levels.”
It’s that sense of simplicity – one image, one idea, perfectly executed – that distinguishes the iconic from the overdesigned.
She also cites W magazine’s 2022 cover featuring actor Zendaya as a modern masterpiece, which used “a clever design rhythm which draws the eye up and across the page.”
“The cover also effectively uses a ‘show don’t tell’ device which gives the reader visual cues, rather than coverlines, about the story inside; that Zendaya is a star, a celestial being who is elevated to a different level from us mere mortals!”
The best covers, she says, “open the door to the magazine” and, by extension, to the cultural mood of the moment.
The anatomy of a great cover
“Finding the right image for a cover is a bit like finding a life partner – when you know, you know,” says Kristina Rapley, editor of OHbaby! and former editor of Your Home and Garden and Taste magazines. “Sometimes you have a folder full of options that could work, but when you come across ‘the one’, you’ll know.”
Rapley believes that beyond technical considerations like masthead space or typography, the emotional resonance of an image is everything. “The right image will be on brand and appeal to your loyal readers and subscribers, while also having enough interest to appeal to new ones and make a statement at newsstand.”
That balancing act between safety and surprise is key. “I think a good editor pushes the boundaries in terms of what they can get away with on covers,” she says. “There’s always a fair amount of push and pull between playing it safe and doing something bold and making it a moment.”
When Rapley took over OHbaby! in 2018, she ushered in a quiet revolution. “We’ve gone from bonny babies and bows, to modern māmās stepping into their power,” she says. Her favourite cover from Summer 2021 captured that evolution: “It was the first-ever OHbaby! issue to have a mother in it, and it signified a change in direction for us at the time. I still love it! It’s a bit more stripped back, a bit edgy with the piercing and tattoos, and so golden and summery.”
For Loates-Haver, the foundation of a great cover lies not just in subject but in structure. “I personally like short, snappy coverlines, which can be so hard to write because you need to convey so much information in so few words,” she says. “I love ‘surprise and delight’ covers, something really unexpected and clever.”
What breaks a cover, in her view, is noise: “too much going on, a noisy background and too many coverlines.” Symmetry, balance, and paper quality all play into the experience too. “Poor printing and paper quality can ruin a good cover,” she notes.
Meanwhile, Tim Phin, owner and publisher of Remix, insists it all starts with the person on the cover. For him, the defining element is “that instant pull – someone people recognise and are curious about.”
“These days, reach and followers definitely play a part, because that’s how people discover things now,” Phin says. “But it’s not everything. It’s really about timing and relevance, who feels right for the moment.”
The evolution of the cover star
The shift from model to celebrity was perhaps the most significant transformation in magazine cover history. Once the domain of supermodels like Cindy, Christy and Naomi (Campbell being the first black model to feature on the cover of French Vogue in 1988), the cover star became a mirror for pop culture itself.
For Jessica Bailey, editor of ELLE Australia, the focus in terms of pulling-power at newsstands is celebrities, “specifically, young, up-and-coming stars who are on the cusp of something great.”
Bailey recalls her years at GRAZIA, where the editorial philosophy was different. “As a niche title, the masthead released four high impact, creatively curated coffee table books per year. The title focused heavily on featuring models on the cover, with a sharp emphasis on the fashion.”
So while we have seen a move from models to celebrities for a large number of titles, Bailey explains that this is still very much masthead dependent.
“The biggest changes in the last decade or two have seen magazines feature diverse models and talent more frequently than they used to, although still not enough,” she adds. “There’s been a movement toward less coverlines as well which is aesthetically refreshing!”
In Aotearoa, Phin has seen a similar evolution firsthand. “When I first started, nearly 30 years ago, we were just focused on making each issue look as good as it possibly could,” he explains. “Over time, we started to realise we could actually shape a bit of the conversation rather than just reflect it.”
The turning point for Remix came when the magazine began to attract internationally recognised faces. “The Kylie Jenner cover was massive at the time,” he says. “She was only 17, and we went to LA to shoot it. We didn’t expect it to end up on Keeping Up with the Kardashians, that just sort of happened, and it was a surreal experience seeing a New Zealand magazine pop up on a show watched by millions.”
Phin remembers that moment as a catalyst to attracting more celebrity names, but he’s equally proud of the homegrown talent that’s graced the cover, like Kiwi model Georgia Fowler, who features on the title’s Spring 2025 ‘Homecoming Issue’. “At the end of the day, every shoot is a team effort, and I think that’s what makes every issue of Remix sound special.”
Print covers in a digital age
While not so long ago, the magazine cover lived and died at the newsstand, today it’s able to be brought to life online to be endlessly shared, dissected and even meme-ified.
As Phin puts it, “A cover doesn’t just live in print anymore, it’s part of a bigger story that continues online and across social. When someone posts about it, that reach helps shine a bit of light on New Zealand creativity too, which is pretty special.”
Bailey agrees: “It’s so important to plan how you will amplify the cover online and on social media, and the timing of that. As an editor, it’s really challenging to have all these parts perfectly come together.”
The digital ecosystem has changed everything about how a cover is conceived and consumed. Once purely tactile, it now exists across screens and feeds, adapting to the rapid visual turnover of social media. Bailey’s insight underscores a shift in editorial logic, that the magazine cover isn’t just a static image, it’s a campaign. “Timeliness,” she says, “is everything.”
Even as motion covers and NFTs enter the conversation, there’s something enduring about the tactile nature and permanence of print. The act of turning a page and the smell of the ink still holds a quiet magic, a kind of analogue intimacy the algorithm can’t replicate.
A good cover still matters
The power of the magazine cover lies not just in its ability to sell copies, but in its capacity to mark time, as exemplified by Elton and Liz, Demi, and Janet. The best covers still tell us something about who we are and who we’re becoming. Like a great relationship, a great print cover is about connection, seeing and being seen in a way that feels true to the moment.
While we no longer have to stumble across a magazine in the supermarket to experience a culturally relevant cover moment, the essence of a memorable cover still remains. Whether it stops you in your tracks with your trolley or makes you pause mid-scroll, a good cover still offers that visceral feeling – one I felt myself just a couple of weeks ago, when British Vogue released its November 2025 cover featuring Gwyneth Paltrow in a cornflower blue dress and 70s inspired blue glasses, sipping pink iced tea through a straw. A true collision of art and intention – at least for me.
The fact that it’s a cover I have only experienced in a digital realm just goes to show, a powerful cover can create that emotional response via any medium, capturing not just the person staring back at you or the story they are there to tell, but a moment in time.
