Components of a magazine front cover

The components;

Masthead: The name of the magazine presented on the front cover.

Dateline: Publication date often shown in months and years, usually contains price too.

Main Image: The largest image shown on the front cover, showing its relation to the main headline and story.

Coverlines: These are at most, a sentence, to explain a story that will feature inside the magazine. They are usually appear smaller (smaller the size, the least importance usually, this applys for the main cover line also). Coverlines sometimes contain small images, obviously relating to the relevant coverline.

Main Cover line: The largest and most visable and outstanding coverline, relating to the main image. Usually takes up a lot of the front cover along with the main image.

Bar code: Standard bar code, on every magazine, used by the retailers.

Selling line: This is a short description of the title's main marketing point, for example Empire magazine's selling line is 'The World's Biggest Movie Magazine'.