After locating the magazine rack in Lehigh’s bookstore, I was instantly drawn to what was already familiar: Cosmopolitan. It’s bright and bold and mentions a lot of articles on the cover. I’ve never subscribed and read it only when I find it in front of me, but I inevitably feel very familiar with it. I have actually seen the issue on the rack floating around my house for a few days already. What has made me so familiar is definitely the consistency of magazines. All look nearly identical to me, and I have to flip though issues of Cosmo to figure out whether or not I’ve read it or not because I can’t tell by the cover. The stories really seem the same in every issue, and sometimes I swear the same girl is on the cover for months in a row because the issues blend together so much. But, somehow, it’s always an enjoyable read, so it will continue to grab my attention.
My initial reaction to Cosmo led me to observe the other magazines similar to it, like Glamour. All of these magazines seem to be formatted just the same and differ primarily in coloring. Cosmo is usually the boldest, and Glamour seems to have a cleaner, whiter cover. These magazines clearly make up a section that utilizes the draw of a beautiful woman on the cover to sell copies. From now on, I plan to take note of the consistency of the other magazines like Cosmo to determine whether they all get away with publishing basically the same stories monthly. I don’t expect the look to change. Fonts and coloring contributes to what keeps readers like me coming back. I just wonder how similar these magazines are aside from in appearance, because they all seem like slightly altered versions of each other upon first observation.
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