Intelligent Life On Planet Rock
Word cover feedback
Posted by Handsome.P.Wonderful on 8 September 2008 - 11:45am.
The new issue of The Word has just plopped onto my doormat. Having breathed a huge sigh of relief that there isn't a Gallagher on the front cover, it occurs to me that the subscriber special edition cover isn't, for me, any real bonus. In fact, as I look now at the image on the right side of this web page, the standard non-subscriber's version looks more appealing with its extra colour and additional text. I would be happy to do without the special cover and put the production savings into getting Word staff an extra drink at Christmas.
- More from Handsome.P.Wonderful.
- Login or register to post comments
-
You swine Handsome
Now I have to work the rest of the day before I get home to see if my copy arrived.
SPIT IT OUT! Is it a beardy bloke on the cover?
Sorry, Beany,
my other post was meant to be your reply.
Still not telling, though....
Not bearded
when photo taken. Definitely not bearded now. Known to wear beards. May irritate those peeved by other magazines' recycling of the same old stars.
known to wear beards, y'say
is it Tom Cruise?
My guess
would be Macca.
There goes my wish for a female cover star then...
I suppose it's Rick Wakeman though.
Ladbrokes have good odds on all the following appearing on The Word cover in the next 12 months, if I get them all in the right order then it's jackpot time!
This is what it will probably be:
Dido (new album out NOW!), Ringo, Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, someone boring like John Fogerty, Randy Newman, John Lennon....yawn...
Please give us at least one of Julian Cope or Robyn Hitchcock!
It's
Phil Collins?
Nope!
(I've got all afternoon...)
Hang on...
"Not bearded when photo taken. Definitely not bearded now. Known to wear beards. May irritate"
It's me!
Michael Jackson
Wearing false beard?
Blimey,
has no-one else seen their copy yet? All wrong so far. (Tiny clue, as I want to go out for a walk now the sun's come out : one of you wasn't far off.)
Me?
Peter Gabriel
Janet Jackson
er,
Not you, Beany.
(God, the feeling of power!)
It IS Dido...
I heard that she has a facial hair problem and requests Immac on her backstage rider...allegedly.
By the way...
Some chap called 'Beany' has a letter printed in the letters page.
Could you take over now, HPW?
Mousehold Heath is calling me.
Upstart!
Never sent a letter. Could it be cribbed from the blog?
Not Rick Wakeman...it's Keith Emerson.
Quite
Possibly
(I'm talking about the cribbing, not the Emerson).
"has been know to wear beards", "same old stars",
I'll plump for Neil Young.
It surely can't be another Beatle?
it only seems like a couple of months since the last One!
Can we look forward to Bob Dylan/Neil Young/Stones next month?
Can't
it?
It can't be
surely?
Oh yes it is!
Please no
Mine hasn't arrived yet - but I have a strict "no buy" policy on the moptops. Can I have an extra month on my subs please Mark?
Don't book a judge
by it's cover. Besides, it has a prog rock raconteur inside. Think of someone with a book to promote...
another Beatle?
That's another fiver saved this month. Cheers guys.
Too right
Annoyingly I am a subscriber as I would have avoided this one. The shattering story is a non event - just a plug for another Lennon book. I hear the distinct sound of stick and barrel. Guess what - we discover JL was screwed up by his parents, led by the nose by Yoko and generally treated those around him disgracefully. I never knew that. I have no need to hear or read anything else about the Beatles - great as they were (well, "quite good" I think we agreed ;-)) thank you very much. And if I did I could buy "Beatles Monthly", aka Mojo.
Special? As in went to a special school?
I love the way a good page designer makes pictures, graphics and type all fight to earn their space, and the boffins who produce the Word cover (the one on the news stands) invariably do just that. The special edition just looks a bit underfed and lopsided; at the risk of sounding like an ingrate, what's the point?
I have never picked up a magazine and thought....
"Not sure about the layout of this front cover. The graphics leave me cold....as to that font.....I'm not buying that".
Stop nit-picking.
maybe that's 'cos the designers are doing a good job
hopefully you would notice bad design in the way you'd notice a bum note in a song.
let's face it
with some of the bruisers on the cover of the Word it's a case of the more type, the merrier.
A creep writes
The new Lennon subscription special cover is really handsome - a thing of beauty, the best for some time. Thank you.
My Rick Wakeman suggestion...
was not far off, I can't believe he was actually in the mag - I was being completely sarcastic when I said he would be on the cover - then what happens, get home, open mag and he's only bloody inside...!
And another Beatle on the cover...but that's one ticked off my Word Cover Star predictor/bingo.
Guys, can't we try for something a bit more contemporary for the next one please?
Another Beatle?
I'd like to see more contemporary artists too, but I don't think three Beatle covers in close to six years is over-doing it. It's the first time Lennon has been on the front, I believe.
Word Cover Star Bingo?
Did I miss out on my bingo card. I'm a subscriber so I can't blame the newsagent. My guess for next month? Stevie Wonder.
Loved the Rick Wakeman article though, especially as the charity event where he was signed up for a pantomime by Roy Hudd was for a charity my wife runs. It's a small world after all.
Check my post above if you want to play along...
It was a spread bet about the next 12 cover stars - you can adapt this to bingo...first one to shout "house" in a year from now wins a subscription to Beard Trimmers Monthly.
"This is what it will probably be:
Dido (new album out NOW!), Ringo, Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, someone boring like John Fogerty, Randy Newman, John Lennon....yawn..."
Sadly
I fear you may be right. As a long time subscriber and big fan of mag, podcast and blog I hope this is a post hols temporary dip.
I don't know what the problem is....
The blog has debated issues recently about:
The Beatles
Neil Young
Bob Dylan
Led Zeppelin
Solo John Lennon
All the "boring old farts" who 'we' are sick of seeing on the cover.
I like these people.
Would you prefer Fleet Foxes on the cover?
If the Fleet Foxes were on the cover, The Word would have their lowest selling issue on record. Fact.
I personally find John Lennon endlessly fascinating.
I haven't read said article or magazine but I look forward to it.
Do we really need more on him though
I personally find John Lennon ceaselessly boring. What is there left to be said about him (or "Macca", Ringo and the other one) that hasn't been said already?
I dunno
one minute David Hepworth says pioneers are just dead men with arrows in their backs then we get another dead Beatle on the cover. You are playing things very safe. I appreciate you guys have to put food on the table but personally I like it when you take risks. I think the last issue I bought was the John Martyn one. I had never heard any of his music - had no idea if I liked him or not, but figured if he was on the cover the piece would be worth reading - informative. It was. I still don't really care for his music, but the piece was new to me.
As for the Fleet Foxes being on the cover - I don't know how you can state with such certainty that it would sell less than the Dido and Prince issues - but is there really no one in between some dead sixties icons and the latest hip young things? Personally, I *would* prefer FF to JL even though I have only heard one track by them. I know enough about Lennon already, thanks.
Actually
despite my usual moaning about the choice of cover star I must say that it is a cracking issue, well worth the money!
Agreed
My initial comment was purely about the 'special covers'. The content is always top-notch.
It would be interesting to know
if doing the two covers did actually make a big difference financially.
Personally, as a subscriber I'm not really bothered either way.
A creep writes again.
When we were asked for cover star ideas before (http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/cover-star-you-be-jury) the most votes seemed to be for Bowie (wow, how daring) or Randy Newman (a sales killer surely), plus various ageing venerables, many obscurities, and hardly anyone new. Shows it's not so easy. They've made a couple of brave choices - John Martyn and Lemmy, which were unpredictable. They need a few safe ones too - they've got a business to run after all. Plenty of juicy content inside anyway.
What was the point in us voting though
just to see John Lennon appear on the cover?
Well
You've got to have a story to go with whoever it is I suppose. And it's not as though they're obliged to take any notice.
Perhaps
There were too many spoilt papers.
Oh no!
You mean they don't take any notice of my posts?! I was kind of hoping they might snap me up as part of the team haha!
As a subscriber
It doesn't really matter who's on the cover.
Anyway, they could put a pint of sick on the cover and I'd still buy it.
Actually, that would be interesting...
It's in the pipeline...
for when the Derek & Clive special hits the racks.
Lack of clutter
I love the special edition covers, they're so much more easy on the eye than the newsagent versions. I hate the fact that John Lennon's on this one though. Not because he's old or dead, just that Mojo and Uncut rotate the same half a dozen cover stars continually and I've enjoyed the recent run of Word covers that have bucked their small trend.
Killing Joke or Rick Wakeman would have made good, if uglier, alternatives. Maybe Mike Skinner or The Wire would have made a decent commercial cover - I don't know. I shall be horrendously depressed if this is the best selling issue this year and we're stuck with a steady diet of Stones, Dylan, Beatles, Pistols for the foreseeable.
Bloody Lennon!?!?!
Has The Word entirely given up on reading it's own blog or concerning itself with the interests of it's readers? The very suggestion that their could be an "explosive rock story" about him not yet told....
Shame on you.
I'm now in turmoil, I also see you have a feature on The Wire. Perhaps you'd be kind enough to pop that one online, like the Radiohead one?
When
the Fleet Foxes and Glasvegas have been around for four or five albums then by all means stick them on the cover. For now though please resist the temptation of turning The Word into the NME.
Put Elbow on the cover
Won the Mercury, been around a while, indie (maybe) but sure not landfill, Guy is a decent raconteur and (sometimes at least) has a beard!
But but but but.....
We're all converts. We buy the magazine, we contribute to the blog and download the podcasts.
A magazine cover featuring Elbow, Fleet Foxes, Calexico or Warren Zevon will not pull in any additional readers or make anyone even flick through the magazine on the shelves of WHSmiths. By having Lennon on the cover (and my heart did sink a little when it plopped on the doormat) it may well convert subscribers to the Word massive from Uncut or Mojo, where the Beatles covers are more regularly rotated.
Now - how about a nice Debbie Harry cover feature!
Good point
I'd never heard of Word, until I saw a few lines in the London Evening Standard taken from the contemporaneous issue which had Macca on the cover. Bought every one since.
Don't like Lennon? Skip the article then. Like I do with the Dr Who stuff (now that is baffling) which crops up from time to time.
"Beatles covers are more regularly rotated?"
Even Mojo hasn't featured the Beatles on 2 covers in 3 issues - I love Word but this indicates either a huge lack of imagination, a different cover story being dropped at the last second, or that the George Harrison cover was the biggest selling issue of the year...
I'm amazed Guys
Have you never heard not judging the book by the cover.
I can't believe anyone wouldn't buy the magazine because of the cover. Don't you realise the point of having a publishing business is to sell Copy. And having a cover that appeals to the masses just does that. Personally I buy because of the articles which usually are very strong although like everything there are blips.
There is enough crud out there at the moment competing for this market and after giving up on most of them, I stuck with Word and its on the ball at the moment.
Female Cover Star
I was banging on about getting a female artist on the front cover but when it came down to it, I couldn't actually think of anyone who would be relevant at the moment.
Yes, Debbie Harry - Blondie are playing gigs again but hardly topical.
Ronnie Spector - would be a good story and is playing live too.
PJ Harvey - hasn't got anything new out at the moment.
Kate Bush - same, would be good but hardly appeared even to promote her last album.
Bjork maybe?
Polystyrene - reformed X-Ray Spex but Mojo got there first
If I look through my record collection, I don't have many records by contemporary female artists which is not a conscious thing.
Blondie, Kate Bush, Vandellas, Go-Go's, Runaways, Fontella Bass, Sahara Hotnights, Ronettes, Shirelles, Ronnie Spector, Supremes, Shangri-La's...but hardly anything that I would call modern - am I missing out on something here?
Topical?
Relevant at the moment?
That would rule out George Harrison then. And John Lennon's contribution is to have a book written about him. Nice photos though...
Just don't frighten the children with this sort of cover
Lennon relevant?
Well, yes. On the grounds that he's certainly not beyond his sell by date, if not death date. Unlike a second-rate pasticheur who is still deemed worthy of gracing the front of Q magazine.
Six Day Riot
are the best female fronted band I've heard recently. I like similar stuff to that which you have listed here, so they might be worth a try - lively, a bit folky, (more Men they Couldn't Hang than Euan Macoll), the track I heard and fell for when they did it live on R4 is called Go Canada.
Other recent-ish stuff, Claire and the Reasons and Emma Pollock - found both through Radcliffe and Maconie. C&theRs also had a track on a Word CD last year.
that was meant as a reply to Kitson
sorry
Thanks...
I'll check them out.
I quite like some of Aimee Mann's stuff, would she have enough going for a Word feature?
I like female singer songwriters
well, I like singer songwriters in general being honest. Love Mindy Smith and Nina Nastasia at the moment, but you'd hardly sell any more magazines putting them on the cover.
My suggestion would be to mix in the more left field icons of recent months (Lemmy was a classic imho, buts its a rich, rich seam - Steve Earle, Tom Waits, Billy Bragg, Terry Hall, Kate Bush) with some more of the classics because, and I'd love someone to come on and confirm this, I'd bet that a John Lennon pic on the cover will 'shift units'?
The content, as ever, remains faultless.
Seeing as we subscribers get a special cover...
...why not go for something less magazine-y and a bit more arty?
Something that could be framed?
A smaller word logo only and the picture?
Something to make it even more cherishable?
This is why I don't work on magazines...
... but is it time for a non music cover? After all it's The Wire piece which is especially good in the latest edition and Dominic West is photogenic if not famous...
Totally agree with that. The
Totally agree with that. The Wire piece is the standout, and most likely to make me buy the mag. On the other hand, JL is least likely, given the trad rock music mag it evokes. A 'hipper' cover with some Wire scenes or characters would, IMHO, make a much more enticing mag, as well as marking it out from its rock bore brethren. I would hazard a guess that putting a rock 'legend' on the cover lifts sales (otherwise why bother?), but there is the wider question of how the mag is perceived. Personally, I would prioritise the things Word does which the others don't - TV, books, culture stuff - ie the things that make it interesting. Mind you, I would also probably cause the mag to lose half its circulation, armchair expert that I am. But it seems to me The Word undersells itself with those old duffer covers.
The one thing....
That constantly put me off buying Word Magazine for 5 years were the covers. I suspect this is the same for a lot of people. I only started buying (and now subscribing) to what I think is a superbly written magazine because of the podcasts - I love the magazine, I cannot thank Word enough for the music and media it has bought into my life, but it really saddens me that these experiences may be denied from others due to the dull covers of people I've really read enough about in my life already.
Podcasts
I had been buying Word on and off for a while but, like Oinkster, the quality of the podcast did make me buy it more often.
What put me off for a while was you would get a cover star like Neil Young or Leonard Cohen (both of high interest to me), only to find the article featured no interview or anything remotely new about them. They seem to have fallen out of this trap for the most part, although there's clearly nothing new to say on Lennon.