In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, what's the deal with...coverlines?
Isn’t it strange that that popular womens’ magazine coverline—“Walk off the weight”— is often shown alongside teases like “Scrumptious ice cream cakes” that have tons of calories a serving? And, what’s with lines that claim to “Save your life with this health test” or “Spice up your sex life with 5 easy moves”? Ed’s asking: Are misleading coverlines ethical?
Well, in their Code of Ethics, the Society of Professional Journalists says that journalists should “make certain that headlines … do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.”
Think about all the times you’ve read a coverline that totally enticed you (“Organize your closet in 5 minutes!”) and later, you opened the magazine to find three short, unhelpful tips? You feel duped and let down, right? Your magazine’s audience feels the same way. Too many false promises, and their trust in you will start to wane.
Don’t get Ed wrong—he knows that coverlines are a big part of selling magazines.
He understands that they are meant to be entertaining and are a simplification of the stories inside. But couldn’t they be a little more…well…truthful?
Ed’s sure we can all still write clever, persuasive, authoritative lines. Those brainstorming meetings might just last a little longer now. :)
What’s your take on the coverline issue? Thoughts?—
Ed
5 comments:
Ed, such a good point! Misleading coverlines are like fingernails on a chalkboard. Actually, they are worse because they typically mean you've wasted $4 (which could have paid for an entire gallon of gas, precious in our current economic environment).
However, I don't believe deceptive coverlines are the real issue. The problem is that the magazine business, journalism in general, has followed the business trends of the late 90s and early 00s--the niche market.
While I understand and value the concept of developing a niche, identifying your audience and staying focused, I do believe it has cut off journalists and magazine editors across the country. We have become so specific that we are limited to a very small number of topics, which we end up repeating over and over again.
The trick becomes creating coverlines that make the same material sound different. Distorted titles are less about the need to trick the reader and more about the desire to put a new face on the same stories.
So writers and editors end up trying to "make it fresh" and end up screwing those at the newsstands.
Maybe instead of clamoring for a succinct target audience, we should have improved the sections and content of the larger, more general pubs.
Narrowing our focus so much, as we have done with things like Real Simple, Domino and Fitness (just to pinpoint a few examples), means we are short on new material. The world doesn't change that quickly.
Maybe we should take a lesson from publications like The Economist, which has actually increased its number of subscriptions over last few years.
In other words, broader magazines with more intelligent, well-thought, unique content is what will keep the print world alive. Looking for the next niche market is going to take us all down in the process.
- Olivia
I recently was reading an InStyle article featuring Heidi Klum and one of the coverlines read something like “Find out the one thing Heidi would never do,” I love Heidi and was excited to see her on the cover. I figured the coverline alluded to something juicy or shocking, so I was disappointed when I learned the answer was “skydiving.” Its not that the coverline was necessarily misleading, the article did tell me the one thing she would never do, but it was instead just disappointing. I’m not sure I would have bought the magazine for $4 for a skydiving answer.
In spite of this, it is the job of the writer to sell his/her magazine; catchy and appealing coverlines do this. I don’t think tips such as “Spice up your sex life with 5 easy moves” is considered unethical, the coverline does not guarantee anything or promise something flase; it implies that it gives mere suggestions and ways to “spice up,” not fix a broken relationship.
I also agree with Olivia, an easy way to avoid misleading coverlines is to write about new material. Expand your magazine’s readership through new focuses and topics, instead of trying to spin and represent the same material over and over again.
I've always considered the cover of a magazine to be an advertisement of the magazine's content. I don't look advertisements with the same ethical scrutiny that I use when looking at content. Think of the photo of Ann Richards on the cover of Texas Monthly or the darkened image of OJ Simpson on the cover of Time. Misleading, perhaps, but they serve their purpose.
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