Cover Girl

Nabbing a super hot, A list star for your cover is no longer a big deal for glossy magazines. Check out the women's magazine rack and you will see famous personalities like Reese Witherspoon, America Ferrera and Rhianna peering out at you. Publishers are now pushing the boat out and going that one step further. To go with that lavish cover shoot is the cover shoot video where behind the scenes footage of the star is screened. This is viral marketing at its best as this video is plugged in the Editor's letter and posted on the magazine's website as well as YouTube. Practically every magazine worth it's salt has followed suit such as NYLON, Marie Claire, Elle and InStyle. Check out the shoot with Queen of cool, Gwen Stefani during her cover shoot for the November issue of InStyle.

Maga-holic

There was a time a few years back when I used to buy every magazine out there. Cosmopolitan, Company, Marie Claire, InStyle, New Woman - they all came home with me. Now I have toned it down a bit and only buy a couple of titles. There is Glamour which I took out a subscription to a few years ago and never got round to cancelling. Glamour is famous for being the publication that had the balls to be different from all the other mags out there. While its rivals were A4 sized, Glamour came in a A5 format that was designed to fit in your handbag. Clever eh? How could any respecting woman resist that? Unfortunately, Glamour has not maintained the standards of its earlier years and the articles are looking old and a bit samey so it will be goodbye to them soon. I also like Elle and Marie Claire - well what I mean is I like the look of them till an hour later when I have ploughed through and realised how crap and totally useless both magazines are.

I don't touch Cosmopolitan because the poor old thing reminds me of an out of date pub that is in desperate need of a lick of paint. In the 70s Cosmo was the voice of post modernist women and published articles on career and marriage while cajoling women that they could have it all. The publication was also a pioneer in awakening women's sexuality and held bold articles. In fact Cosmo was seen as the magazine that you bought if you wanted to know how to cook a three course meal and perform a blow job. Sadly Cosmo's circulation is no longer what it was in the 70s and 80s and is now just seen as just another magazine while other titles like Marie Claire, Glamour and now Grazia have surpassed it. Ah, Grazia; described by a media honcho as a woman's guilty pleasure. It is like bad men and alcohol, fantastic at first till you realise that it is simply not good for you. Upper class fancy magazines like Vogue, Tatler and Harpers do nothing for me. All fur coat and no knickers with very few articles of interest. The magazines that I do have time for are Psychologies, Easy Living and Happy. Also magazines that come free with the Sunday newspapers are pure class; Stella with The Sunday Telegraph, YOU with The Mail on Sunday, Style with The Sunday Times and Observer Woman are all gorgeous publications that remain in my collection. Yes, sometimes the best things are for free. What magazines do you guys read? Picture from The Observer website