Chapter 67: Cover Design of European and Latin American Magazines

Paris Match

Paris Match was founded in 1949 by the industrialist Jean Prouvost, who had already turned daily Paris Soir and weekly Match into French press success in the 1930s. Paris Match, like Match before it, was inspired by the American Magazines Life and Look. In 1976 Daniel Filipacchi purchased the ailing Paris Match, and turned it into one of France's most successful and influential magazines. According to a paper by Alain Chenu, between 1949 and 2005, 85 per cent of topics covered by Paris Match was related to celebrities. The original style of magazine owes much to Roger Thérond (1924–2001). Thérond was nicknamed "the eye" . As Henri Cartier Bresson described him " Thérond was a 'visual' - that is unusual. He had a feeling for the document, the grand reportage, and for layout. A lot of magazine editors would ask the photographers for ideas. Thérond didn't. You'd give him the raw material and he'd figure out the right way to lay it out. His authority was so great that foreign magazines copied his photo choices and page layouts".

In May 1968, Jean Prouvost removed Thérond off the editorial board, considering him too close to the stikers and the newly formed union of Paris Match journalists. Circulation declined , and in 1971, Prouvost sold the magazine to Daniel Filipacchi, a former Paris Match photojournalist,. Fillipacchi brought Thérond back and assigned him as the editor-in chief . As Thérond writes in a preface to a book commemorating the 50th anniversary of the magazine

"The magazine that Flipacchi took over in 1976 was moribund. To save it, we returned to our origins, reinstating coverage of major news events, reactivating freedom to tell and show. Just as we were putting the finishing touches to the first issue of the new Paris Match, we get the the dispatch: " Mao is dead. " Event, cover,- and success is back. Fate was on our side, and it never deserted us again"

Born October 24, 1924, in the port city of Sète, Thérond studied liberal arts. His first journalism experience was as a film critic with the French magazine ''L'écran français'' (French Screen). Thérond collected snapshots long before they became top sellers at auctions, and over the years he amassed one of the world's most impressive private collections. Some 250 pieces were shown at the Maison Europeénne de la Photographie in Paris in 2000.

First issue - March 1949

October 1949

July 1950

July 1951

February 1952

August 1953

October 1954

March 1955

September 1956

December 1957

June 1958

September 1959

August 1960

July 1961

March 1962

September 1963

October 1964

November 1965

April 1966

August 1997

June 1968

April 1968

February 1969

August 1972

March 1972

April 1973

Le Nouvel Observateur

Founded in 1954 by former resistance fighters, among them Gilles Martinet, a former journalist for the news agency Agence France Presse, Le Nouvel Observateur soon encountered financial difficulties and in 1964 was taken over by entrepreneur Claude Perdriel, who created his own press group. The magazine became successful thanks to its description of the socio-cultural trends of the post-1968 years. After running into financial difficulties again it shifted its focus to grand reportage. In 1999 it launched its website with its own editing team. The magazine's new charter, adopted in June 2004 (on the 40th anniversary of its founding), described the paper's principles:

... The Nouvel Observateur is a cultural and political weekly whose orientation belongs within the general social-democratic movement. A tradition ever concerned with combining respect for freedom and the quest for social justice.

The magazine's current editorial board is presided over by two of its co-founders, Jean Daniel and Claude Perdriel, two editors-in-chief, Laurent Joffrin and Serge Lafaurie, as well as director general, Jacqueline Galvez. The magazine adopted a new layout in 2011, and appears is paying more attention to the artistic criteria in its cover designs since.

Drawing by Serge Bloch . One of the most prolific and talented living French illustrators, Bloch has a instantly recognizable voice, and appears regularly in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, as well as GQ and National Geographic. His work is humorous, heartfelt, with a deceptively childlike simplicity that has made him sought after as an illustrator for hard-hitting news stories, children’s books, and everything in between. Bloch was awarded a gold medal by the Society of Illustrators in 2005, the Bologna Ragazzi award in 2007, as well as the Best Book Award in Taiwan in 2010. “I am drawing stories and writing drawings,” says Bloch, “even with stories that have no rhyme nor reason or with sketches drawn upside down.”

L'Express

L'Express was founded in 1953 by Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber and Françoise Giroud, on the model of Time and Newsweek. The magazine fits well with the concept of Americanization that Servan-Schreiber was advocating in his book "The American Challenge" (1967), in which he called for "discriminating Americanization" that would produce something like a United States of Europe. Born in 1924, Servan-Schreiber was the son of the founder of Les Echoes, a financial newspaper. After the war, he contributed to Time and the International Herald-Tribune. In 1953, he was named diplomatic editor of Le Monde. The same year, he founded L'Express as a free insert to Les Echoes. L'Express soon became an independent newsweekly, known for its somewhat leftist politics that nevertheless included support for America during the Cold War and of France's pullout from its colonies. He revived and led the Radical Socialist party, and for many years represented Nancy, the capital of Lorraine. In 1974, the newly elected president, Giscard d'Estaing, appointed him minister of reform. He sold L'Express in 1977.

Le Point

The Le Point was founded in 1972 by breakaway journalists from L'Express. The key figure who instigated this departure was Claude Imbert, whose provoking editorials, outspoken and rooting in a deep cultural discourse, focusing on ethical and philosophical judgments, were at the core of L'Point's brand. Emulating closely the American style of news magazines, it offered a conservative synthesis of the events. Originally it belonged to the publisher Hachette. Within three years Le Point broke even. In 1981 it became part of the Gaumont cinema group. In 1997 it was acquired by François Pinault, the French businessman and friend of former French president Jacques Chirac, and his Artémis group.

In 2001 the magazine changed its layout and introduced a new logo and new sections The Le Point was founded in 1972 by breakaway journalists from L'Express. The key figure who instigated this departure was Claude Imbert, whose provoking editorials, outspoken and rooting in a deep cultural discourse, focusing on ethical and philosophical judgments, were at the core of L'Point's brand. Emulating closely the American style of news magazines, it offered a conservative synthesis of the events. Originally it belonged to the publisher Hachette. Within three years Le Point broke even. In 1981 it became part of the Gaumont cinema group. In 1997 it was acquired by François Pinault, the French businessman and friend of former French president Jacques Chirac, and his Artémis group. In 2001 the magazine changed its layout and introduced a new logo and new sections.

Le Petit Journal Illustré

A supplement of Le Petit Journal newspaper, a conservative daily publication in Paris, France. Begun in 1884, the supplement quickly gained popularity and by 1895 over a million copies were produced every week. Le Petit Journal ceased publication in 1944, following a steady decline in readership through the early 20th century.

Der Spiegel

DER SPIEGEL ("The Mirror"), appeared on Saturday, Jan. 4, 1947, in Hanover, Germany, as the successor of a magazine called Diese Woche or "This Week". Diese Woche was created by the British military government shortly after World War II, as a publicity device, a number young German idealists led by Rudolf Augstein joined the paper and redirect it towards critical journalism at times criticizing the occupying forces of the Allies. After just five issues, the British gave up the troublesome paper and offered the publisher's licence to Rudolf Augstein, who as its editor-in-chief and publisher renamed it DER SPIEGEL and following his radical instincts gave 50.5% of the ownership to his employees. Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann and publisher of Stern, a rival weekly, holds 25.5%, and the Augstein family retains a minority 24%. This means that the employees of the print edition, represented by a body known as the Mitarbeiter KG, have a say in how Spiegel-Verlag is run—and get a big share of annual profits.

According to Henry Kissinger

Ultimately, Rudolf was a moralist and a devout patriot. But having matured during a period of German history that embarrassed him, and amidst the dislocations and chaos of the postwar period, abstract statements of moral certitude seemed inappropriate, especially for someone so young. This is why Rudolf strove to realize his belief in democracy and the regeneration of society by exposing its shortcomings. And precisely because his goals were so high, his critique could be relentless. He took seriously his self-proclaimed goal as one of the guardians of German democracy.

The front page of the Nov. 7, 1962 issue of DER SPIEGEL shows founder Rudolf Augstein in Karlsruhe, West Germany, after his arrest in the so-called "SPIEGEL Affair."

The first issue appeared in January of 1947. By 1952, when DER SPIEGEL moved from Hanover to Hamburg, the net paid circulation had risen to over 121,000 copies. It has been the standard-bearer for investigative reporting in Germany since 1962, when Augstein, prevailed in an important test of free speech for the still young Federal Republic of Germany. The magazine gained wide fame in 1950 when it claimed that Bonn had only been chosen as the provisional capital of West Germany because members of parliament had been bribed. As a result, the German Bundestag set up the so-called "SPIEGEL Committee," which tried in vain to shed light on these allegations.

One night in October, the police occupied SPIEGEL's news and publishing offices, accusing the magazine of treason -- "systematically, for its own financial gain" as then Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was to declare before parliament -- for publishing a cover story entitled "Limited Readiness for Defense." The story was about a NATO exercise called "Fallex" during which it became apparent that the German military, the Bundeswehr, was in a sorry state. Authorities arrested Augstein as well as the magazine's editors-in-chief and several journalists. Augstein remained in jail for 103 days. A wave of protest swept across the country and it ultimately became apparent that Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss had lied about his role in the affair, leading to his resignation.

To this day, DER SPIEGEL continues to expose scandal and impropriety with far-reaching consequences in the world of politics and business. Over the past year, SPIEGEL published a series of investigative reports as part of a publishing partnership with the Guardian, the New York Times and El Pais covering documents provided by the Internet whistleblowing platform WikiLeaks, including the widely publicized Afghanistan and Iraq files as well as the US diplomatic cables. The magazine has reported extensively on the European debt and euro crisis. It also drew critical praise for its feature "The Kill Team" covering the excesses of a group of American soldiers in Afghanistan.

In Germany, DER SPIEGEL is rightly regarded as being synonymous with "investigative journalism." It is characterized by thorough research and dependable quality. In many cases four, five or even more journalists and correspondents work together on a single story. The journalists concentrate primarily on events of political and social interest. The result is a magazine which offers a lot of background information, a balanced mixture of short and long articles, by-lined commentaries, major reports, forums for dialogue and discussion and an in-depth examination of the issue's cover topic.

February 1947

July 1948

1950

1960

The cover story that Spiegel magazine ran on Bernard Buffet on July 11, 1956 (it was the very first dedicated to a living artist) was to determine the reception of his work in Germany, Austria and Switzerland for decades to come. The massive rebuke to Buffet that it contained can be boiled down to two main claims: 1) that Buffet’s art was thoroughly “unhealthy” and 2) that it was utterly dubious, as it was based on a lie. The very headline suggested a basic toxic trait to his work: “The man with the golden arm” alluded to Otto Preminger’s neurotic drama about a jazz musician who was a heroin addict (it had had its German premiere shortly beforehand), while also referring to the painter’s profitable output, as was emphasized by the sub-title “2,000 pictures in ten years”, intimating that this spelled a very unhealthy excess productivity.

L'Illustrazione Italiana

Founded in Milan, by Emilio Treves in 1873, Nuova Illustrazione Universale, was the predecessor to L'Illustrazione Italiana, which published by the publishing house of Treves. Emilio Treves was the magazine's first editor. Two years later, the magazine name was changed to L'Illustrazione Italiana. It became a popular magazine among the Italian bourgeoisie, owing to the quality of its articles and the artistic quality of its illustrations, by leading the leading artists such as Achille Beltrame, Pietro Scoppetta, Luigi Bompard, Joseph Cosenza and Ettore Ximenes.

L'Illustrazione Italiana carried some of the best-loved and most influential literary works of Italian writers such as Carducci, Grazia Deledda and Luigi Pirandello (Nobel Prize for Literature), the realist writer Giovanni Verga, the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, the literary critic and writer of fables Luigi Capuano and Edmondo De Amicis, author of the famous novel "Heart", a masterpiece of children's literature. The magazine also issued high quality Special issues during the holidays at the end of the year, which attracted writers like Matilde Serao and Ada Negri, while the colored illustrations were assigned to painters such as Edward Dalbono, Giulio Aristide Sartorio, Francesco Paolo Michetti, Arnaldo Ferraguti and Joel Ferraguti.

Emilio Treves died in 1916. With the establishment of Fascism in Italy publishing houses came more and more under the financial control of the State, which entered into relationships of patronage. Publishers as clients of the State became susceptible to grace and favour, and most crucially to a form of corrupting and creeping de facto censorship. The magazine lost much of its allure. After the Second World War, it transformed into a monthly publication in 1951 and finally closed in 1962. The Bloomsbury Publishing tried to resuscitate it at the end of 1981 in the form of a bi-monthly periodical. The attempt did not find enough luck and the magazine was closed in 1996.