Men’s Health Recycles Old Cover Lines; Editor Defends

by Robert Quigley | 5:32 pm, December 10th, 2009

» 8 comments

People who memorize every cover of Men’s Health may have noticed something curious about the December issue’s cover, aside from noted dreamboat Taylor Lautner: almost all of the text and layout is identical to a cover from 2007, which featured Jason Statham. The self-recycling was noted by none other than intrepid media watchdog … Perez Hilton.

Hilton even throws some cutting, Jack Shafer-like criticism about the interplay of media and economy into the mix: “It seems the recession has stopped Men’s Health from hiring new headline writers because we’ve seen all this shiz before!”

In a statement to Mediaite, Men’s Health editor-in-chief David Zinczenko defends the cover.

Zinczenko: ”The newsstand coverlines are a tool that help us reach the maximum number of guys possible, on promises we know we’ll fulfill every issue. For many magazines, certain cover subjects — from lines to celebrities — are an important part of their newsstand branding. But for the 80 percent of readers who get our subscriber copies, the lines are totally different and reflect the breadth and depth of our reporting with the 12 million readers we serve each month. Rest assured — it’s this originality and reporting rigor that’s made us the biggest men’s magazine brand in the world.”

The repetition of cover subjects is a bit excessive. Six-pack abs and dressing for more sex are of course topics of perennial interest, but apparently, 1,293 is also the precise number of sexy women confessing what they want in bed required for newsstand branding, year after year.

Still, Zinczenko’s point about alternate subscription covers is a valid one. The subscription cover, below, is totally different, though it replaces sexy women’s yearnings in bed with 1,293 money, fitness, sex, and nutrition tips:

Also: here’s the cover to this issue’s free bonus tech guide. Apparently, what sexy women want in bed is Sennheiser HD 800 headphones.

Mystery solved! $1400, though?

(h/t Perez Hilton)

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http://www.twitter.com/kgotkin Kevin Gotkin

And we thought Levi was a gay icon? Try the curious Taylor Lautner instead!
justinwalter

Mens Health is very informative but the problem is after you get a subscription you get bombarded with ads for other books, dvds etc. One of them they sign you up for a monthly book club type thing without notice and if you don’t send the book back within 30 days they charge you for it and keep trying to bill you. I finally called them up because I never actually received the book I was to return and they canceled the bill collection they were after. Other than that, I like what they do.
bobofthemtns

I suscribed to MH for a couple of years till I realized that ALL of their articles are just re-hashes of previous ones. I mean really, how much can you say about crunches?
DougB

What other indication would a reader need in order to realize that Men’s Health has nothing more to say? Buying this mag on the newsstand is like going to a restaurant and getting served last week’s stale leftovers.
LKM882

I used to read MH, but I agree with bobifthemtns it’s redundant and immature. I prefer MEN’S JOURNAL now which has much more diverse, interesting content and helpful info.
Lex Wadelski

This just confirms what I’ve always thought about MH…it has the most BORING covers in the world!!!

They ALL look alike, if you ask me.

Austin, Texas
Rachel Sklar

@JustinWalter – that’s a really, really, really annoying marketing strategy.
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