As the decade we’ve dubbed The Aughts winds to a close, many magazines are celebrating with giant interactive features that attempt to encapsulate ten years of tragedy, victory, controversy and beyond. But to praise (or denounce, right Time?) the end of the decade with a magazine cover is truly a special sort of honor — and oddly enough, it’s rare. So far, not too many titles have given the early 2000s the newsstand treatment, so we figured for the final edition of Cover Wars this year (and this decade!), we would celebrate those commemorating The Aughts. See you next year, but first, click inside to see the winner!

We know they have more fun, but do blondes really make better cover stars? What seems like a common enough occurrence, but the visual homogeneity this month is almost disorienting! There’s blonde of the year Taylor Swift on InStyle, Gossip Girl‘s Blake Lively showing skin on Marie Claire, a refined Cate Blanchett in a gown for Vogue and Sarah Jessica Parker gone lighter, front and center for Elle. But only one can be the best blonde! This is Cover Wars…

With this weekend’s release of the latest entry in “The Twilight Saga:” New Moon, it’s safe to say a new publicity blitz is upon us. In this edition of Cover Wars, we remember the classics from the Twilight franchise, knowing full well that many more are now in print. We call it The Greatest Twilight Cover So Far.

Yesterday, we got extremely excited for the next entry in The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and to celebrate we took a look back at the all-time greatest Twilight magazine covers so far. We picked one cover, but the fans had other ideas. And the winner is…

We’ve all witnessed the rise, fall and rebirth (repeat) of those special creatures who have been famous since childhood. This fall, a few glossy magazines have reserved their cover spot for women who came of age under the spotlight, but with new projects (and new bodies!) they seem to be doing all right. But which cover most successfully documents the embattled maturation of a child star? Cover Wars decides.

Glenn Beck took a moment on last night’s show to critique the cover of the this week’s “fringe media” Time featuring him, the ‘Mad Man.’ And to give credit where credit is due, he makes a fair observation about the media world: he is not the only media type out there peddling paranoia!

The media loves one-year anniversaries, hundred-day anniversaries — any excuse to zoom in on the thing they’ve been covering all along. This week’s one-year anniversary of the financial crisis — a gold mine for business magazines! Or a call for gold spray paint, if you’re BusinessWeek.

On the cover of Glamour’‘s October issue and back in the saddle with No Doubt, Gwen Stefani is positively in your face. Feeling her pink fuzzy grip, we’ve pulled some of Gwen’s best cover work from the last five years. In your face, in your crotch, on the bedroom of your wall in high school — she’s been all over the place on the cover. But which is her best to date?

With the death of Senator Ted Kennedy, news magazines were charged with the difficult task of choosing the appropriate cover photograph for an embattled political legend. Would the cover be about documentation, spectacle or celebration? In this week’s Cover Wars, we evaluate the tributes to the last Kennedy brother.

Summertime and the living is easy. Unless you are the Editor in Chief of a weekly news magazine. The summer news slump that’s so great for the vacation plans of tv anchors and reporters, presents a challenge of what to put on the cover – particularly when there’s no clear cover story that has availed itself.

We normally count on graffiti-chic Esquire covers to be the edgiest of the men’s mags . But this month, Esquire tries to hard, leaving the door wide open for the September Details and a brooding, bloodshot Tom Brady — edgy but relatable.

We can’t blame The Economist for replaying 100-day coverage because, let’s face it, the American news media was was a little premature and extravagant. The Economist’s ‘Crunch time’ cover is playful, and handsome to boot. And we especially love the baby blue, because nothing says ‘crunch time’ like baby blue.

Every week we take a look at the newsstand and try to pick the winners and losers. We call this feature “Cover Wars” and this week we’re looking at the world of men’s magazines — or should we say ‘magazines that men might like to read’. We’re always looking for something a little smarter to read, especially if photos of Brad Pitt eating donuts over his keyboard are involved.

Women’s fashion magazine covers typically fall somewhere between sexy and sophisticated. But finding the sweet spot is much trickier when your cover girl is still a teen. This month, women’s fashion mags across the globe plucked their covergirls from the young, supple crop of up-and-comers. Does putting teens on the cover help attract younger readers? (Or any readers at all?)

Jonas Brothers identity crisis on the cover of Rolling Stone; Who can think about Prince’s Purple Rain at a time like this? And! Some genuine musicians, who we want to read more about.

In this week’s Cover Wars, travel mags duke it out to see who has the best deal this summer. In a pinch, is it better to hit the sauce with Travel + Leisure? Or drool over Condé Nast Traveler’s deals (that we probably still can’t afford)? Maybe we’ll just grab Budget Travel and take comfort in the fact that we’ll never be as broke as their cover.

Every week we take a look at the newsstand and try to pick the winners and losers. We call this feature “Cover Wars” and this week we’re looking at the July issues of the leading Men’s Lifestyle magazines, which featured a lot more skin than usual.

Harper’s Bazaar goes tabloid on Angelina Jolie, V-word makes Sandra Bullock giggle, Vogue slims down for Sienna Miller…