Posted In: PR by
Connor,
April 24, 2025
By Sophie Nightingale, Senior Account Manager
There’s no denying that front covers are highly coveted coverage placements. Shared across socials and in the publication’s archives forever, they’re far reaching with a much higher eyeball rate than internal pages.
National covers and tabloid splashes are reserved for the extraordinary, and world changing news stories. When we look at this sector specific, this includes assets like exclusive imagery, CEO interviews, new launches, celebrity partnerships or collaborations.
Getting on the front though takes a lot of patience and a really strong journalist – PR relationship. There’s often only 12 chances a year with an increasing number of publications reducing their circulation cycles. Our senior PR manager Sophie takes us through four considerations and how to leverage your brand’s assets.
Every magazine needs a stand-out front cover image, and some are still running their own shoots for this. This is probably the most important factor when pitching for a front cover. You can support publications on imagery a number of ways both with pre-shot lived-in, real home imagery, as well as loaning product, sending samples and offering case study exclusives. We speak with editors and stylists every day to support them in upcoming shoots so that we’re always at the forefront of their mind when making brand selects. You don’t always need to have the imagery yourself, just access or direction of how a journalist could secure it themselves with their own photographer. This will likely mean you won’t own the image though – something to bear in mind if you’re looking to reuse the coverage.
High-authority voices help drive conversations in sector specific media. Honest, open and insightful conversations from CEO’s or MD’s can be the difference between a column feature or front page news. Remember this needs to be paired with an impactful image with plenty of white space for magazine titles and front cover designs, so consider when and how this access is given like at an event or warehouse tour rather than a Zoom call.
It can be tempting to unleash your exciting brand news all at once for everyone to see, but we’d recommend reserving your story for a well-nurtured journalist relationship. No two magazines will have the same front page, so pitching your update as an exclusive is really appealing. Front pages are reserved for the issue’s feature story so the press will need access to the story behind the image, whether that’s a homeowner, CEO, charity partnership or new launch – remember to craft a compelling hook.
Partnering with high-profile celebrities are a great way to amplify your brand voice and gain access to profile PR slots that you wouldn’t usually have. This is a tried and tested technique but a photoshoot is a non-negotiable to secure the front cover, and we’d recommend inviting press to the shoot and offering the interview set up there. This might not get your brand image on the front cover, but your celebrity partnership will be mentioned and included as the headline feature story.
Back to basics and what front covers are reserved for, are really good stories. We’re talking industry changing, eyeball grabbing headlines that are literally written for people to pick that publication out amongst a sea of others. Crafting a well-written story is a fundamental skill of a good PR and can take years to develop. If there’s something coming up in the pipeline for your brand, or a huge exciting change to your business, chat it through with your PR manager and they’ll let you know how big of a story it is. Some are too good for journalists to say no to, and when pitched right, don’t need a pre-written press release as the journalist will work in collaboration with the PR on building out the piece.
Securing front covers requires trusting journalist relationships and ultimately a compelling newsworthy story.
Want to find out more? Reach out to our PR team or Sophie on LinkedIn here.
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