Time magazine designs covers for four markets.-Witness these stunning dichotomies:

[midnight]

Each week, TIME Magazine designs covers for four markets: the U.S., Europe, Asia and the South Pacific. Often, America's cover is quite, well – different.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/25/1039957/-STUNNING-Comparing-U-S-World-Covers-for-TIME-Magazine

[PowerToThePeople]

1. Wow, even Time mag. is part of the Prapaganda/Disinformation team. n/t

[RC]

28. You just now finding that out?

I used to subscribe to them. I dropped them 10 years ago or so because of the BS they passed off as "news". I didn't want to read their slanted news and propaganda. They were pushing Right-wing views even then.

[PowerToThePeople]

29. I don't read it.

It doesn't surprise me. They are pretty mainstream. Heck, after NPR went pro-war in the early 2000s I gave up on most US media. Amy Goodman, Local Indy radio station, and foreign news sources is about it . I still glance at main stream stuff, but only to educate myself on the propaganda being fed to the general population.

[East Coast Pirate]

43. Time Magazine has always been right wing.

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0403.html

"We tell the truth as we see it," Mr. Luce once explained when his magazines took sides on controversies. And he was accustomed to urge his editors to make a judgment. He believed that objectivity was impossible. "Show me a man who claims he is objective," he told an interviewer, "and I'll show you a man with illusions."

To a remarkable extent during the peak of his total involvement with his magazines--Time, Fortune, Life and Sports Illustrated--the judgments and opinions that were printed reflected the focus of Mr. Luce's own views--and these encompassed virtually every facet of human endeavor.

He was a stanch Republican, a defender of big business and free enterprise, a foe of big labor, a steadfast supporter of Chiang Kai-shek, an advocate of aggressive opposition to world Communism. He was also an Anglophile, but he believed that "the 20th century must be to a significant degree the American century."

[midnight]

58. I'm not disputing this opinion, but just remembering in the run up to the Iraq invasion this

magazine wrote a piece saying the amount of money and life was not doable... But this was so long ago....

[AlbertCat]

39. Just figuring that out?

I stopped getting TIME some time in the '90's I think.... when the cover was SUPERMAN IS 50!

That...with the whole world of news to choose from, is the cover story? And I think some Superman thing was coming on TV or in theatres or something, so it was also a huge advertisement for Time/Warner.

Meh.... good riddance.

[RevStPatrick]

44. "Even" Time? Is part of the team?

What, are you kidding?
Time practically invented the team.

Time founder Henry "Luce envisaged that the United States would achieve world hegemony, and in 1941 he declared the 20th century would be the 'American Century.'"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Luce

[Sivafae]

48. Now we are in the 21st Century. Just sayin.

[RevStPatrick]

57. Actually, we are in...

...the New American Century:

http://www.newamericancentury.org/

[Warpy]

2. Well, Americans are narcissists

who think it's their right to enjoy life without thinking of what their brethren overseas are going through. Sadly, the magazine editors are partly right about that.

It's the same reason US televised news has gone to tabloid/entertainment pap with no news of what is actually going on with 98% of the American people or what issues are affecting them and little news of what's going on overseas beyond a warning for graphic footage that isn't.

It's all about sales/ratings.

[bunnies]

3. Is the content different too?

I wonder.

[HangOnKids]

8. Yes it is

Don't travel much bunnies?

[bunnies]

9. nope.

Never been anywhere, really.

[HangOnKids]

12. Sorry but home is great too

Mag coverage reflects covers, different covers different stories.

[bunnies]

14. I'd much rather have access to the one everyone else gets.

Looks like something I'd actually buy vs what they sell here now. It says a lot about the country that Time needs to dumb it down in order to sell it here. They should at least give us the option.

[CBGLuthier]

4. I was going to say I saw something about that a few years ago

but this is the same thing I saw a few years ago. I would like to see some more recent examples to see if the trend continues. I imagine it does.

[BlueJazz]

5. We are the Lolipop Kids.

[CJCRANE]

6. That looks more like just two markets: America and the outside world. nt

[Baitball Blogger]

7. The story of two Worlds.

Right there.

[Scuba]

10. Here's this week's example ...

[enlightenment]

34. That's 2011, Scuba.

It appears that while there still are differences, there are more similarities - and more of an actual focus on location specific news.

http://search.time.com/results.html?N=46&Ns=p_date_range|1

[Scuba]

41. Yeah? What year is it anyway?

Ooops, sorry. Thanks for the gentle correction.

[enlightenment]

42. The only reason I know

is because I keep checking . . . CRS is my new monogram, I'm afraid!

It is fascinating - the covers, not the CRS - and really makes you think about how news is presented.

[midnight]

52. Scuba I'm right there with you....

[donheld]

56. You almost made me feel young again

[CJCRANE]

49. From 2013: "The Face of Buddhist Terror"

and "Why Gitmo will never close" were deemed inappropriate for the American audience.

[enlightenment]

50. Yes, there are still differences.

I believe I said that.

I'm not trying to suggest that Time is reformed - simply that based on more current issues, there seems to be some effort at consistency across regions.

[CrispyQ]

11. This:

Viewing these covers, a question must be asked: do these moments of marketing (through a choice in covers) reveal more about Americans, or about the state of American journalism?

I fear the answer.

[hobbit709]

13. They've been doing this for years.

[Blue_Tires]

22. I was about to mention that...

I was absolutely shocked to see the difference between the CNN networks...If people even had a CLUE on how many light years ahead it is of the domestic channel, there would be an FCC investigation on why the domestic one is so shitty, and why the International isn't offered through cable providers...

One day we also need a discussion on how much better the food is abroad, too (from the same company)

[AZ Progressive]

32. The News Media is complicit in molding Americans to suit the Corporate Agenda

[G_j]

16. sure makes it appear that Americans don't

care about, or want to know about the rest of the planet.

[CJCRANE]

17. The global edition looks like a magazine I'd want to collect

showing history in the making.

The American edition looks like pap.

[Jenoch]

18. I didn't know that Time magazine was still being published.

[Hekate]

19. They're not stupid, but they think WE are...

I quit TIME in disgust for several years, but missed it. My latest subscription is about to expire... and I'm going to let it.

If it's any kind of intellectual nourishment you want, your brain may die of anorexia from reading TIME these days.

[SCVDem]

20. Why are Americans so stupid?

We can't handle the truth.

[live love laugh]

21. Americans are so stupid b/c we sold our information to the highest bidder and let them choose

what they want to tell us.

[KittyWampus]

25. I am not stupid. Speak for yourself.

[live love laugh]

23. If this does not illustrate the fact that there's a war on Americans, I don't know what does. nt

[Posteritatis]

24. That there's a difference is one thing; the sheer inanity of the American ones is another. (nt)

[leftstreet]

26. How many of the US Time mags are they actually selling?

I mean, I really don't know. Does anyone other than a Doc's office buy these things?

With such huge parent megacorps controlling the media they can use magazines and tv programs as propaganda wings without needing to consider sales.

[Demeter]

27. You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!

We won't let you even get a sniff of it.

[RC]

30. It is not so much we can't handle the truth, but that they are afraid that we can.

That would not be good for them.

[Demeter]

37. (THEY can't handle the truth~!)

[spanone]

31. SHAME on time magazine.

[AZ Progressive]

33. And this shows the bubble that Americans live in

[Fla Dem]

35. Article is 2 years old, all covers shown are from 2011.

Not saying this is not still going on, just that the information is a tad dated. The author also notes that the topics shown on the international covers are included in the US versions. I would guess some of the more dynamic marketing technique to the international market is because most of their sales there are from newstands, while the US market is more subscription based with less need for a dynamic cover.

[Swede Atlanta]

36. Wow.....I knew that publications varied their reporting and placement

based on the target market..you see that if you look at CNN US version versus one of their other versions but....

generally the content is comparable. Here it appears the entire focus is totally different.

In each instance where the international versions appear to be taking on an important issue such as the violence in Egypt, Germany's position in the global economy, etc. they offer applesauce to the American audience.

The question I have is....is this because they know the American audience is not smart enough to read and understand articles on important and serious issues or is it because they are part of the white-washing conspiracy in American media today?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

38. It's like the auto makers....

The Ford "Ka" isn't even available in the US and this UK commercial would cause total outrage here.

(Even though it's fake)

BTW: the 1.3 Duratorq version gets 3.7 litres per 100 kilometres which is 76 MPG on the freeway.

[mindwalker_i]

40. We live in the "short bus" country

[Link Speed]

45. TIME understands its demo

dumbass Americans.

The vast majority of the US does not give a flying fick about Egypt (or the rest of the world, for that matter - except maybe for the Windsor spawn).

[limpyhobbler]

46. It's particularly important to keep the American people distracted an misinformed.

The US government has been providing the physical force to hold the global capitalist system in place. Actual information could cause democracy to happen in the US. People might decide they don't like the role their government has been playing, and could try to change it.

[onethatcares]

47. don't know about you, but

I'm really, really interested in the way household chores are divided in married households

[MADem]

51. Before the internet, if you lived in the ass-end of the world, and wanted news, you had to do

several things: first, buy Newsweek and Time every week; get to the international news shop early, develop a relationship with the owner so he will save stuff for you; second, buy the International Herald Tribune daily; third, buy a local paper (if you're lousy at the lingo, buy the English language version), and last but not least, listen to the BBC world service either over the air or via shortwave. If you had tv, you could tune in the television news as well, but that was often hit or miss.

The Newsweek (RIP) and TIME covers were always very different in other parts of the world; the coverage was, too.

The bottom line isn't especially nefarious--TIME, in USA, competes with PEOPLE and US and gossip-magazines; in other parts of the world, it competes with policy and political magazines in both English and the Native Language of the Locale and is geared towards an audience that reads and writes quite fluently in English--that's usually a small percentage of the total population in many countries (even though some might have "conversational" skills). The fact that it has pictures makes it much nicer for the English As A Second Language reader. Also, "Mommy" type stories don't sell well in either Asia or the Middle East, not in a magazine that is popular in business venues.

A picture of Qaddafi on a US edition in a supermarket isn't going to push someone trying to choose between that publication and another, say PEOPLE, touting Suri Cruise. However, that "family oriented" or "health" story might do the trick.

Different markets, different customer bases, different approaches.

[gopiscrap]

53. Interesting

[suffragette]

54. I remember back when Time named Maher Arar person of year for Canada and Bush for U.S.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2940822

Stunning contrast.

[Liberal_in_LA]

55. interesting. us get covers that reflect our individuality and self interest