# Different magazines with the same cover at the same time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2022, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-magazines-with-the-same-cover-at-the-same-time/968004 "2022-07-15T12:12:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-magazines-with-the-same-cover-at-the-same-time/968004/1 "2022-07-15T12:12:07Z")
Magazines generally try to have covers that are attention grabbing (so that you’ll grab and buy the issue) and unique (so that they won’t be mistaken for another magazine). But sometimes magazines end up ion the newsstand with exactly the same cover (or at least close to the same cover) as another magazine. This might be because of some striking recent event that has only one image, or one iconic image. Or it might be chance. I notice that magazines try very hard to avoid this, but sometimes it can’t be helped. The classic case was the month that three magazines – **Scientific American, National Geographic,** and **Smithsonian** – all had exactly the same image on the cover. This was January of 1980, and they all reproduced the riveting image of a volcano erupting on Io. > **[Scientific American Volume 242, Issue 1](https://www.scientificamerican.com/magazine/sa/1980/01-01/)** > > Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives. > **[Smithsonian Covers #50-99](https://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/smithsonian/2)** > > A cover gallery for Smithsonian > **[Amazon.com - National Geographic Magazine, January 1980 - Books](https://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Magazine-January-1980/dp/B000M9ELGI)** > > Amazon.com - National Geographic Magazine, January 1980 - Books There have been other cases. In 1981 both **Cinefantastique** and **American Cinematographer** had their entire covers filled with a blowup from the poster for the new Ray Harryhausen movie **Clash of the Titans** (his last feature-length film, it would turn out) > **[Cinefantastique Vol. 10 #3 / Ray Harryhausen - Clash of the Titans: Amazon.com:...](https://www.amazon.com/Cinefantastique-Vol-10-Ray-Harryhausen/dp/B003VHYEOM)** > > Cinefantastique Vol. 10 #3 / Ray Harryhausen - Clash of the Titans on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Cinefantastique Vol. 10 #3 / Ray Harryhausen - Clash of the Titans > **[American Cinematographer Vol. 62 #6 June 1981 Clash of the Titans Film Movies ...](https://www.ebay.com/itm/125211809994)** > > 62 #6 June 1981 Clash of the Titans Film Movies. I can think of one other case where the image was similar. Playboy’s relatively short-lived (at least while they were still publishing it) sister magazine **Oui** had a cover that showed a naked woman’s torso over which she was pulling a triangular cloth. It looked an awful lot like the cover of **Psychology Today** that showed a clothed woman’s torso with a very deep triangular opening down the center – sort of a clothing-negative version of the **Oui** cover. Mad magazine has frequently showed other magazines “copying” their own cover motifs (like the issue where the entire cover was basically a giant bar code symbol, or when the cover shows Alfred skating down the cover, and one half of the cover drawn as if peeling away from the slash. I think very similar covers both ran in the **New Yorker**.), but these haven’t been at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-magazines-with-the-same-cover-at-the-same-time/968004/2 "2022-07-15T12:28:01Z")
On October 27, 1975, some singer from New Jersey named Bruce Springfield or something like that appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek magazines. > **[Springsteen Makes Covers Of Time And Newsweek - October 27, 1975](https://calendar.songfacts.com/october/27/9017)** > > Bruce Springsteen becomes a household name when both Time and Newsweek put him on their covers. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-magazines-with-the-same-cover-at-the-same-time/968004/3 "2022-07-15T12:51:09Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > On October 27, 1975, some singer from New Jersey named Bruce Springfield or something like that appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek magazines. Great! Although you get bonus points if the images are almost identical. (No points for cover stories of major news events at the same time – that’s expected. But things that aren’t immediate Big News showing up on the cover simultaneously gets a botice.) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-magazines-with-the-same-cover-at-the-same-time/968004/4 "2022-07-15T12:53:19Z")
A quick internet search turned up this identical cover set: > **[Same Cover Different Mag](https://aphotoeditor.com/2008/05/13/same-cover-different-mag/)** > > Daryl Lang over at PDNPulse catches Esquire running the same Platon shot of Obama that Time did 6 months ago (here) and asks: We wonder how the Esquire editors failed to get an exclusive Obama port… **Esquire** and **Time** – same picture of Obama in 2008 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-magazines-with-the-same-cover-at-the-same-time/968004/5 "2022-07-15T12:55:40Z")
Here’s another case, with the same image of Qadaffi on **Weekly Standard** , **Economist,** and the Brazilian magazine **Veja** > **[When One Picture Makes Two Magazine Covers… (Make that three covers)](https://mrmagazine.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/when-one-picture-makes-two-magazine-covers/)** > > From the many pictures that came out of Libya, one image of the Libyan leader Qaddafi found its way to two magazine covers: The Economist and The Weekly Standard. The Economist used a touch of R… ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-magazines-with-the-same-cover-at-the-same-time/968004/6 "2022-07-15T12:59:58Z")
Here’s the New Yorker “bar code” cover from November 1988 > **[New Yorker November 14th, 1988 by James Stevenson](https://fineartamerica.com/featured/new-yorker-november-14th-1988-james-stevenson.html)** > > New Yorker November 14th, 1988 Painting by James Stevenson and **Mad** ’s from ten years earlier [https://www.ebay.com/itm/225040098949?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=225040098949&targetid=1531876739238&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9001911&poi=&campaignid=16178122713&mkgroupid=134484880018&rlsatarget=pla-1531876739238&abcId=9300819&merchantid=115053193&gclid=CjwKCAjwoMSWBhAdEiwAVJ2ndlx3La3YflOsLf-j01UAniP-4jiQVFOnRuhxiThDZVLPfDDEw0vHZhoCNd4QAvD\_BwE](https://www.ebay.com/itm/225040098949?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=225040098949&targetid=1531876739238&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9001911&poi=&campaignid=16178122713&mkgroupid=134484880018&rlsatarget=pla-1531876739238&abcId=9300819&merchantid=115053193&gclid=CjwKCAjwoMSWBhAdEiwAVJ2ndlx3La3YflOsLf-j01UAniP-4jiQVFOnRuhxiThDZVLPfDDEw0vHZhoCNd4QAvD_BwE) ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-magazines-with-the-same-cover-at-the-same-time/968004/7 "2022-07-15T13:42:38Z")
I remember when (IIRC) Time and Newsweek both had OJ Simpson’s mug shot on the cover after he was arrested for his wife’s murder. There was some controversy at the time because Time’s photo was considerably darker than Newsweek’s. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-magazines-with-the-same-cover-at-the-same-time/968004/8 "2022-07-15T13:46:16Z")
Quite right – I remember that, too. Here are the covers from June 1994 [http://www.alteredimagesbdc.org/oj-simpson](http://www.alteredimagesbdc.org/oj-simpson) Not surprising that they had the same cover – it was his mug shot. But the editor at Time tried to make the mood darker by making the tone darker, without thinking of the racial implications. It didn’t help that, as the link says, the magazines would usually be side-by-side on the newsstands, highlighting the difference. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-magazines-with-the-same-cover-at-the-same-time/968004/9 "2022-07-15T13:54:20Z")
Here’s a case with the same blurb article on two magazines, but they’re two years apart. Even the subsidiary titles are the same. Looks like someone copied. > **[r/pics - Friend posted this to FB. Two different magazine covers, two years...](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1fym0u/friend_posted_this_to_fb_two_different_magazine/)** > > 2,971 votes and 409 comments so far on Reddit [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/NJKarQR.jpeg "Friend of mine on FB posted this tonight. - Imgur") ](https://imgur.com/NJKarQR) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-magazines-with-the-same-cover-at-the-same-time/968004/10 "2022-07-15T13:57:23Z")
**GQ** and **Vanity Fair** with the same cover > **[r/mildlyinteresting - Same cover photo, two different magazines](https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/grtxbk/same_cover_photo_two_different_magazines/)** > > 7 votes and 2 comments so far on Reddit That’s rapper Kendrick Lamar Duckworth on both, June 2018 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-magazines-with-the-same-cover-at-the-same-time/968004/11 "2022-07-15T14:02:17Z")
Here’s the **Mad** magazine cover with Alfred skating a cut through the cover (March 1990). They said that another magazine (New Yorker, I think) copied the idea for the cover later on. I haven’t been able to find it. > **[ORIGINAL Vintage 1990 Mad Magazine #293 Alfred Neuman Ice Skater | eBay](https://www.ebay.com/itm/363150208344)** > > Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for ORIGINAL Vintage 1990 Mad Magazine #293 Alfred Neuman Ice Skater at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products! ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-magazines-with-the-same-cover-at-the-same-time/968004/12 "2022-07-15T15:06:45Z")
Two years apart… someone must have seen these at a doctor’s office. 😛