B&T editorial director Dan Uglow says The Maggies don’t really get print.
A few years ago I hit my girlfriend in the face with a small baseball bat and broke her cheekbone. We’d been going out three days.
In my defence there were good intentions. We were in Year 9 (yeah, ok, a bit of creative licence there with “a few years ago”) and playing a game of rounders (a game that any pom in the office will reminisce about… It’s like baseball with underarm throwing and a short but devastating bat).
Myself and Jessica O’Connor were on the same team. It was the final throw of a grudge match between Pilton Community College and The Ilfracombe Academy. I had a pretty solid record of hitting big, so when the moment came I sent that shabby little tennis ball into orbit.
A critical element of rounders is that you have to toss the bat before you can run. Such was my feverish excitement that I tossed the bat straight into my captain’s face. Shattering her cheekbone and my chances of making second base (both metaphoric and literal).
As an adolescent I was attempting to simultaneously impress the captain, win the game and possibly cop a feel after school.
Good intentions, just heinously misplaced.
Similarly the publishing industry has once again delivered itself a heinous injury with the recent launch of the Maggies.
For those that don’t know, the Maggies is an awards program for the best magazine covers over the past year. In my view there is nothing more needed or more deserved than the publishing industry giving itself a pat on the back from time to time. It is a celebration of the unwavering commitment to the industry that its staffers provide, it is a showcase for the creative brilliance that exists within the print media and it is, frankly, an award worth winning.
I should add at this point, that I’ve never won a Maggie, nor have I ever entered any of the covers I’ve worked on. Competition isn’t something I enjoy (see above for clues as to why).
The covers are shortlisted by a judging panel and then put to a public vote, which is conducted online. This all seems very admirable, but the plan unravels here faster than a speeding tennis ball that’s felt the wrath of a Devonshire teenager’s oak bat.
Problem number 1
The magazine covers have to be submitted as jpegs and appear online. Thing is, print is different to online. What works in print shouldn’t work online.
As publishers we should celebrate each medium and cease this desire to cut content from one medium and slap it on the other. Judging the best print covers online is like taking your wife on a date… to a brothel.
Problem number 2
Being visual isn’t enough. The best print covers nowadays justify their place by forcing reader engagement, a lasting connection and a degree of amazement. Great covers can’t be judged purely on a visual basis anymore. Smart publishers have learnt that their covers have to appeal to at least two of the senses – touch and vision. Try appreciating a beautiful emboss online. The Maggies now ostracise some of the more forward thinking designers and editors in the business who are embracing the concept of allowing print to offer something that online can’t – a sense of touch. In fact, foils, flouros and all manner of other printing treatments don’t transcend online.
A cover that stands out for me this year was Bauer’s School of Real Living design book.
It had a varnish that looked glossy but felt, err… felty. I sat at home stroking the bloody thing like it was Blofeld’s cat
Problem number 3
The public vote rarely rewards the best cover. Sometimes it biases the mag with the biggest audience (not a bad thing) but more often the mag with a marketing team that’s coerced their mates on Facebook to vote for them wins through.
The print industry is in crisis and The Maggies – an awards scheme designed celebrate greatness (covers are after all the face of the magazine sector) – is based on some gross misunderstandings of our industry.
Since that fateful day in Year 9, Jessica O’Connor never spoke to me again. Her two black eyes and swollen cheek meant that I never returned to the rounders pitch.
I’d love to enter B&T into The Maggies and reignite my competitive streak, but that day will only come once the judging criteria moves into the 21st century, embraces tactile printing trends and ditches the dumb online voting policy.
