The Atlantic March 2009 Issue Gets Four Covers

The Atlantic is no stranger to experimentation of late: it recently unveiled a major redesign, of both its magazine and its website, and in the fall it rolled out a clever out-of-home marketing campaign to attract new readers. With its March 2009 issue, the magazine that invites readers to "Think Again" has re-thought the notion of the cover, and has published four distinct versions of its cover, tailored to specific metro areas (and their newsstands).

The issue, which hits newsstands this week, features a cover story by urban studies Richard Florida, best known for his work about the "creative class." The story is titled, "How the Crash Will Reshape America," and while it points to declines in the suburbs and the Sun Belt, it also reports good news about certain metro areas.

The Atlantic is targeting these metro areas with separate covers specifically tailored to their newsstands — proclaiming, "New York Wins," "Chicago Wins," "San Francisco Wins" and "Toronto Wins." The Chicago, San Francisco, and Toronto covers will run in those markets, while the rest of the country (and New York) will carry the "New York Wins" cover.

See the covers below:

Comments

[wayoutleft]

it's an old idea. david brooks has it covered in yesterday's NY Times. this mistake, following their erroneous but eye-catching cover story on the end of white america, suggests that we'll all be bicycling to nearby work from small cooper union type co-ops instead of driving from exurban homes to office plazas. all we have to do is retrofit and redesign urban cores for middle class families. sound familiar? there was a lot more of this when oil prices were a big deal for a few months. and when there were any jobs in the first place.
but there's surprisingly little interest in designing beijings for ppl to live in in america even with jobs and oil prices set up for shorting and driving green energy investors broke.

[BushBites]

Why do all the covers but chicago have skyscrapers pictured?

They couldn't find a photo with Sears Tower or the Hancock in the foreground?

[sasson]

Even though I live in Chicago, my subscription got me the New York cover.

[BushBites]

The Chicago cover sucks anyway.

Unless you want to see the West Side and Cicero.

[Emlyn]

I'm a bit perturbed - they don't mention Los Angeles at all. Here we are, the second largest city in the country. Yes, we have flat places but we have a beautiful downtown area with some of the finest Art-Deco buildings in the country probably the world. But then Los Angeles is always treated as a septchild. We get tired of that.

[impatient]

Oh come on, LA, get over yourself already. I lived in LA for 2 years and in most of the other parts of the country for extended periods as well, and I have to say, LA is the worst place to live of any region in the US. The thing that makes it so awful is the whining self-pitying and self-righteous attitude of the people who live there, all of whom have a script no one will look at, or are convinced they would be a star if the right agent would just take them on. What part of the country gets MORE attention than southern california?

My beef is that of all of the places west of the mississippi, they chose san francisco? That's it? What about the pacific northwest? What about the intermountain west? What about Seattle? Portland? Denver? Salt Lake City? Sante Fe? Albuquerque? Toronto over all of these other places?

Why?

[BushBites]

does the article say those metro areas will do well?

[BushBites]

If LA was on the list of cities that will do well after the crash, i'm pretty sure they would have done a special cover for them too.

[Jeremy Huggins]

So wait... New York, San Francisco and Toronto all get great, iconic skyline shots, but Chicago gets a generic view of the flat, bland suburbs?!? What gives? I call foul...

[BVictor1]

As a Chicagoan, I have to agree with you to an extent. That shot appears to be from the Sears Tower looking due west. The city is flat, and there aren't really any tall building looking in that direction. If they were going to do if from Sears the view should have been to the northeast towards Hancock.

[BushBites]

Maybe Oak Park wins?

[Jeremy Huggins]

Wait... so San Francisco, New York and Toronto all get iconic skyline shots, but Chicago gets a generic look at the flat, boring suburbs? When we have one of the best skylines, to boot?!? I call foul.

[KdNicewanger]

SI has been doing regional covers for years. Big whoop

[Ramirez]

Smart marketing, IMO.

[Opt1musPr1me]

Wow the Atlantic has money.