Portfolio drops cover flap in favor of cover lines

The January issue of Conde Nast Portfolio drops the business magazines flap that told readers what was inside the magazine and instead will have those teaser headlines on the actual cover, writes Nat Ives of Advertising Age.

Ives wrote, “‘What the flap allows us to do is showcase great photography and it also allows you to very clearly tell readers what’s in the magazine,’ Ms. [editor Joanne] Lipman said. ‘We wanted the flap to show this magazine has a plethora of interesting articles.

“‘The flip side of the flap is that because it’s very narrow, we had a flap curl issue,’ she said. ‘When people spent a lot of time with the magazine, the flap curls.’

“The advertising on the reverse side brought only a tiny bit of incremental revenue. And the set-up constrained editors’ ability to play up articles in different ways or even run a tease across the top, where it could be seen on crowded magazine racks.

“The January issue runs a line across the top that screams newsstand crack: ‘Bono and the Rock Stars of Technology.’ The cover story about corporate espionage gets the biggest text down below, while blurbs run down the left side and a red button over the logo offers ‘Wall Street’s Next Crash.'”

Read more here.