ASME's Top 40 Magazine Covers of the Last 40 Years

     On October 17, 2005, the 40 greatest magazine covers of the last 40 years were unveiled at the 2005 American Magazine Conference (AMC) in Puerto Rico, by Mark Whitaker, Editor of Newsweek and President of American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME), and AMC Chairman Evan Smith, Editor of Texas Monthly.

    Rolling Stone’s January 22, 1981 cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono was named the top magazine cover to appear since 1965.

NO.1 Rolling Stone (January 22, 1981)
Rolling Stone’s cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono was named the top magazine cover to appear since 1965. The image was photographed by renowned celebrity portraitist Annie Leibovitz mere hours before Lennon was shot on December 8, 1980. The photo was eventually used on the cover of Rolling Stone’s tribute issue to Lennon on January 22, 1981. 

NO.2 Vanity Fair (August 1991)
Vanity Fair’s provocative cover shot of the naked and hugely pregnant Demi Moore (also shot by Annie Leibovitz) projected the actress to even greater heights after the huge success of the movie Ghost the previous year. The cover helped firmly establish Moore as a member of Hollywood’s A-List at the time.

NO.3 Esquire (April 1968)
The controversial April 1968 cover depicting Muhammad Ali impaled by six arrows appeared on the heels of his refusal to be inducted into the U.S. Army because of his religious beliefs. (Ali, convicted violating the Selective Service Act, was barred from the ring and stripped of his title.) The cover, the second of three Esquire covers defending Ali, shows the boxer martyred as St. Sebastian, a patron saint of athletes and one who was shot with arrows for his steadfast religious beliefs. This was one of the covers designed by George Lois, Esquire’s Art Director during the 1960s.

ASME created the “Magazine 40/40” competition earlier this year. A judging panel of 52 magazine editors, design directors, art directors and photography editors was charged with picking the 40 top covers from a pool of 444 images representing 136 magazines. The contest was open to all consumer magazines published in the United States. Magazines were invited to submit up to four entries from their respective publications. Entrants were also encouraged to nominate covers of magazines that were not published by their company or were no longer being published.

“This diverse and surprising spectrum of covers is a fascinating cultural montage, and beyond that, points to the role that magazines play in shaping our culture and telling our history,” said Whitaker. “From newer magazines, such as Budget Living and Details, to venerable titles such as Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, these images reflect and shape decisive moments in American society – revolutions in design, technology and landmark geo-political events.”

In total, of the 41 winning covers, 32 were photographs, seven were illustrations, and two displayed typeface, only. The decade-by-decade breakdown was as follows:  11 winning covers from the 1960s; eight winning covers from the 1970s; three winning covers from the 1980s; ten winning covers from the 1990s, and nine winning covers from the 2000s.