This thing again: Criticism over Time’s differing cover play resurfaces

Remember a few months back, when we did the analysis of Time’s covers to see if the balance between hard and soft news was consistent around the world? The issue’s cropping up again, with Slate pointing out how Time passed on giving Americans a Mario Monti cover. Just a couple points to this: First: The prior week, Time gave Americans (and the rest of the world) a cover on a prosecutor trying to clean up Wall Street, a story which treads some of the same ground as the Monti cover. Two weeks ago, Time passed on giving Americans a cover on soccer icon Lionel Messi, which would’ve been a weird time for one considering the Super Bowl was on the way. As I said last time, I personally don’t think it’s a matter of Time trying to soften the news — but more a matter of Time playing to different markets. Though it’d be nice if Time thought Americans cared about the Italian leader enough that they’d pick up a magazine with his face on the cover. — Ernie @ SFB