New Tinney Messages

What About Subscriber-Only Covers?

One thing I love about the people who read my blog (you know who you are) is how responsive they are. No matter what the topic, there are always a few people who have something to ask about it or add to the conversation.

In a recent blog about online cover testing , I mentioned that one thing we learned about newsstand readers and subscribers is that they are looking for the same things in a cover—something immediate, practical and eye catching. An editor from Esquire International contacted me to ask: what are the test results of doing a separate subscriber versus newsstand cover? The editors there, and elsewhere, believe that a separate subscriber cover makes the subscriber feel special, and more attached to the magazine or brand. How does that perspective relate to my assertion that both subscribers and newsstand buyers are found to be looking for similar things?

It’s a great question, and one well worth clarifying. I have worked for many publications that have had separate newsstand and subscriber covers. BYTE magazine’s subscriber cover, by artist Robert Tinney, had its own cult following and violated every rule of the mass market—illustration instead of photo, little inside jokes and whimsical touches. It was, in fact, a work of art—and its following of geeky hackers (this in the days before “hackers” was a bad word and “geek” a word of praise) knew it and valued it as such. So, a different cover was created for the mass market. The newsstand version had cover lines pointing to the benefit-laden articles inside, as befits an impulse product; its subscribers were meant to figure out the meaning of the cover art themselves.

Similarly, The New Yorker’s art cover for years was clean of cover lines for its subscribers; the newsstand version used a full-length tip-on, masterminded by then-newsstand director Dinny Zimmerman (now my partner at PSCS).

My point was only that the message to the subscriber and the message to the newsstand buyer is (often unexpectedly) similar; and that what it takes to convey that message also transcends buying channel. Whether or not subscribers appreciate the clean (that is, cover-line-free) covers or would rather have cover lines showing what’s inside the publication was then, and continues to be, a matter of some debate.

Tinney Chapel Today: David Stanton headlines Lee Cemetery Memorial Day

Tinney Chapel Today

This is the Communications Weblog of Tinney Chapel UMC, the quintessential country church. Tinney Chapel UMC was established in 1900, and located at 449 County Road 4620, Winnsboro, Texas 75494. This weblog is maintained by Joe Dan Boyd, who serves Tinney Chapel UMC as its Communications Coordinator, a Certified Lay Speaker and, for 10 years, taught The Remnants, an adult Sunday School Class. Tinney Chapel also has a website at http://tinneychapel.org/home.html

Farm reared career journalist. BS in Agricultural Journalism at Texas A&M. MA in Folklore at University of Pennsylvania. Author of Judge Jackson & The Colored Sacred Harp, distributed by University of Alabama Press. Recipient of Oscar In Agriculture For Career Contributions. Communications Coordinator & was, for a decade, Sunday School Teacher at Tinney Chapel United Methodist Church.

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