-By Warner Todd Huston
In 2010, stereo equipment magnate Sidney Harmon bought Newsweek for $1. This year his surviving family members ended their support for the magazine. It may have been a good decision since Newsweek can’t even seem to keep its own cover image fresh and original as is witness with an August cover sporting an image and theme that has been used several times before on other magazines.
The August issue of Newsweek features the cover story “101 Best Places to Eat in the World,” and is illustrated with a close up of a pretty lady, head tilted back, and with asparagus spears dangling seductively toward her red, parted lips.
If that seems familiar, you may have caught a 2008 cover of Observer Food Monthly in Great Britain that featured the exact same image. Not just a similar one, but the exact same stock photo.
Or maybe you saw the same photo on a Harper’s Bazaar cover circa 2006?
It appears the original photographer was one Donna Trope and the image can be seen on her website as the Harper’s Bazaar cover.
Also, Eater.com notes that the whole sexy chick/asparagus theme is boringly common.
- Getty images number one
- Getty images number two
- Getty images number three
- Shutter stock image
- iStockphotos image number one
- iStockphotos image number two
The asparagus may have been fresh, but the Newsweek cover was as wilted as week-old produce. No wonder the Harmon family decided that even at $1 the magazine wasn’t worth the effort.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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