Cover mounts are the curse of the contemporary magazine publishing business. Everyone hates them.
Editors, journalists, advertising teams, publishers, distributors, marketers, packers, shelf-stackers, and readers with even the teeniest modicum of self-respect and intelligence.
But everyone loves them too, because HEY LOOK, FREE STUFF!
Never mind that the stuff is either mini-samples of merchandise that you wouldn’t buy or use in the first place, or poorly-made trinkets or accessories with the logo of the offending magazine crudely and embrassingly stamped all over them.
Cover mounts (even the name is enough to induce a little cringe) add no measurable value to the content, quality, or reputation of a magazine, and nobody seriously believes that they are anything other than a desperate attempt to persuade loyal readers to switch their regular monthly or weekly brand.
And yet, the delusion of added value persists, partly because we are by nature shallow creatures, and partly because, well, it is just a little harder to rip open the plastic and stand there reading the mag in the CNA where there is an item of dubious worth jammed between the Jiffy wrap and the glossy cover.
Far simpler just to buy the magazine, take it home with you, settle down in a quiet corner, rip open the plastic, grab the free stuff, and toss the magazine away.
Here’s the haul from the current editions of some popular women’s magazines:
- Cosmopolitan: A little stick of Nivea deodorant.
- Glamour: A ridiculously large pair of sunglasses.
- Woman & Home: A diary.
- Your Family: A diary.
- Living & Loving: A Huggie for your baby.
- Cleo: A Mills & Boon novellette.
- Your Pregnancy: The world’s smallest bottle of Johnson’s Baby Oil.
