Magazine Feature vs Cover vs Editorial Spread: What Each One Means
A feature is an article about you. A cover is the front of an issue. An editorial spread is a multi-page photographic layout. These are three different products, and the gap between them in cost and availability is enormous.
They get used interchangeably in sales conversations, which is precisely why it is worth knowing what each one actually is.
Feature
An article about you, published by the magazine.
It has a headline, a byline, body copy and usually one or two photographs. It might run 600 words or 2,000. It is the standard product: when anyone says "I got featured", this is nearly always what happened.
Online it lives at a permanent URL. In print it occupies one page or a few.
This is what almost every press service sells, ours included. It is the useful one for most purposes, because it is the thing that appears when someone searches your name.
Cover
Your photograph on the front of an issue, with your name on it.
The cover is a magazine's single most valuable piece of real estate. It sells the issue. It is chosen by the editor months ahead, usually for someone with a film, an album, a book or a scandal driving the news cycle that month.
Covers of established consumer magazines are not purchasable in any ordinary sense. When you see a cover being offered commercially, it is nearly always one of three things:
- A digital-only cover, which appears on the website and never on a newsstand
- A regional or special edition with a small circulation
- A smaller independent title where the cover is genuinely available
None of those is dishonest and some are good buys. But none of them is the thing a person pictures when they hear "magazine cover", and the difference should be stated rather than left to the imagination.
We wrote separately about what is and is not available here: how to get on a magazine cover.
Editorial spread
A multi-page photographic layout, usually fashion or interiors.
Several pages, commissioned photography, styling, art direction, minimal text. A spread is a production: photographer, stylist, location, sometimes hair and makeup, shot specifically for that magazine.
That production cost is why spreads are rare and expensive. They are also the format with the strongest visual payoff, which is why fashion and interiors brands want them.
An editorial spread is not an article with extra pictures. If what you are offered is one page with three photographs, that is a feature.
The comparison
| Feature | Cover | Editorial spread | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | an article | front of an issue | photographic layout |
| Length | 1 page or a URL | 1 page | 4 to 12 pages |
| Photography | usually yours | commissioned | commissioned |
| Commonly available | yes | rarely, and not as pictured | occasionally |
| Searchable afterwards | yes | sometimes | rarely |
| Relative cost | baseline | very high | high |
Which one you actually want
For almost everyone, the feature, and not as a compromise.
A feature is the format that produces a permanent, searchable, linkable article with your name and your argument in it. That is what works when someone looks you up, which is the job most press is bought to do. A cover photograph with no article behind it does far less of that work than people expect.
A cover is worth pursuing when the image itself is the asset: performers, public personalities, anyone whose face is the product. Ask which kind of cover before anything else.
A spread is worth it when the work is visual and the photographs are the point. Fashion, interiors, architecture, food. For a software company it would be an expensive way to say nothing.
The questions that keep this honest
Before agreeing to any of the three:
- Is this print, digital, or both? Covered in print edition vs digital edition.
- If it is a cover: newsstand, digital-only, or a special edition?
- How many pages, and who is shooting the photographs?
- Will there be an article, or only images?
- Is there a permanent URL?
Vague answers to any of these are the answer.
The short version
A feature is an article. A cover is the front of an issue. A spread is a photographic layout across several pages.
Features are what is commonly sold and what usually does the job. Covers are rarely the thing people picture. Spreads are real but expensive and only make sense when the images are the point.
Ask which of the three you are buying, in writing, before you pay for it.
Related reading: how to get on a magazine cover, press release vs feature article, and byline vs quote vs feature.
We write and place features in the publications our clients choose. About us
Frequently asked questions
01What is the difference between a magazine feature and a cover?
A feature is an article about you inside the magazine, with a headline, body copy and usually a photograph or two. A cover is your photograph on the front of an issue. The cover is a magazine's most valuable space, chosen by the editor months ahead, and it is rarely available commercially in the form people picture.
02What is an editorial spread?
A multi-page photographic layout, usually in fashion or interiors, running four to twelve pages with commissioned photography, styling and art direction and minimal text. It is a production rather than an article, which is why spreads are rare and expensive. One page with three photographs is a feature, not a spread.
03Can you buy a magazine cover?
Not for established consumer magazines in the usual sense. Where a cover is offered commercially it is normally a digital-only cover that never reaches a newsstand, a regional or special edition with small circulation, or a smaller independent title. None of those is dishonest, but each should be named rather than left to the imagination.
04Which should I choose: a feature, a cover or a spread?
A feature for almost everyone, because it produces a permanent searchable article with your name and your argument in it. A cover when the image itself is the asset, as for performers and public personalities. A spread when the work is visual and the photographs are the point.
