Today on Facebook, I came across a short article that talks about TIME magazine. The article was mostly a pictorial on cover stories for TIME. As it turns out, each week, they publish up to four different covers—one for the US market, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific. Sometimes all 4 can be the same—but in many cases, 3 out of 4 are the same. Here’s a little quiz to put it in perspective:
1. 3 out of 4 markets had a cover story about the problems of the Egyptian revolution, while one market’s cover story was why anxiety is good for you. Which market ran the anxiety story?
a. Europe
b. Asia
c. South Pacific
d. United States
2. 3 out of 4 markets had a cover story about Germany and “Why it can’t save the world,” while one market’s cover story was entitled “Why mom liked you best.” Which market ran the story about mom?
a. Europe
b. Asia
c. South Pacific
d. United States
3. 3 out of 4 markets had a cover story about Aung Suu Kyi, while one cover story was entitled, “Who needs marriage.” Which market ran the story about marriage?
a. Europe
b. Asia
c. South Pacific
d. United States
If you answered “D” for all the questions, you’re absolutely right. Feel free to see these (and more) covers at: http://truththeory.com/2013/09/26/stunning-comparing-u-s-world-covers-for-time-magazine/
Some people might think that TIME magazine is simply “marketing” what it thinks it’s readers want—and to a point, that’s true. However, the reverse is also true: the customers will only buy magazines with covers that appeal to them.
For a couple years, I worked at Shepherd Express Weekly News in the circulation department. My boss was a guy who’d been in circulation since the 1980s. One of the jobs in circulation was to count “returns.” For example, say we put 25 copies of an issue at your favorite restaurant. At the end of the week, the carrier would have to make note of how many (if any) were still in the rack when they came with the new edition. The goal would be to try to stock just slightly more papers than needed (to make sure that all customers had it available), but not so many that they were wasted. Most weeks, this system worked out well—but there were weeks that were wildly off mark. There were obvious mistakes—such as running very similar looking covers two weeks in a row, but there were other times returns would sky rocket. Political endorsement covers, covers about the arts, and covers with African American faces. Interestingly, it didn’t matter how popular the African American was—even Bill Cosby flopped. What was more interesting was that the returns for African American issues were just as poorly received at inner city Shepherd stands.
What does this mean? My humble opinion is that Milwaukee, and America, like intellectual stories about non-sense, they like their magazines covered with shiny white faces, and they don’t want to be challenged too much by international issues. TIME magazine could be said to be doing us all a favor by running these cover stories. After all, if we don’t pick up the issue, we have no chance of reading the international stories inside, but I feel TIME is doing us a disservice—feeding us all the candy we want until we’re fat and stupid on our constant, frivolous sugar rush. It’s symptomatic of the entire American political experience. We want sordid tales of politician’s lives; we want feel good stories about sports, and need stories of black faced criminals to reinforce our need to believe that the inner city is dangerous.
Finally, we want lots of pictures and videos of kittens doing silly things.
I fear for all of us. You should, too.
3 thoughts on “Why I Fear for our Country—and Why You Should Too…”
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All you have to do to get an idea of how profoundly pathetic American news has become is to spend one week watching news on Al Jazeera America. The difference in both story and depth is striking.
Brian, Time is irrelevant in America today. It’s only people like you and me who read 1984 at a impressionable age that still think it has any influence. I used to take Time, US News and World Report and Newsweek until I got tired of seeing the same stories every week with the same slant in each one.
The United States spent of lot of money in order to determine the significant of the number ‘4’. No doubt they’ve done this with every color and every digit we use.
Crowd control/influence is a big issue in any country but especially a democracy. Being in the direct marketing business on a national scale led me to realize that every known market is owned and jealously guarded in this country.
I used to wonder if I needed to wear a tin hat while I worked so that no one could get wind of my next idea for a marketing push because I saw campaigns similar to my newest ones coming out of New York marketing companies just weeks after mine were launched. To paraphrase our patron saint of marketing, Steve Jobs “forget about privacy, it doesn’t exist anymore.”
That helps most folks forget about “important” issues. and just go about buying stuff and seeking entertainment. And the economy rolls on. Except for folks like you and me. And for us, there are all the organizations who seek your donations to “save” this or that.
But if there are enough of us, “they” will change things a little so that we won’t upset their social models to much and allow things to get sloppy. So have fun and protest but don’t lose any sleep because that’s bad for you.
Nichols and McChesney appeared on Moyers and Company over the weekend, explaining a lot about the state of print media to those who may not have already noticed their take on these things. A “must,” view in my opinion.