Judging by the Covers

Occasionally, someone asks, in tones of shock, "When did you start putting ads on your cover?" Actually, the practice began with our very first issue, January 18, 1872, of what was then called The Publishers' and Stationers' Weekly Trade Circular. D. Appleton and Co.'s cover ad featured The Last of the Mohicans as well as the now (perhaps blessedly) forgotten historical romance Mohammed Ali and His House. Through the years, the execution has changed, but the point has remained the same; publishers have used PW's cover to announce a major new title or publishing line to the entire book trade.

This has, however, meant that it is difficult for us to announce the editorial contents of the magazine. Gradually, through various designs, a small amount of space was carved out at the top of the cover to allow for editorial cover lines. With this issue, we introduce an additional solution: an internal "editorial cover." This text cover gives us an opportunity to highlight important articles in the magazine. The goal of this redesign is to present a strong opener to the issue as well as to consolidate our table of contents so that it is easier to navigate.

For those of you who depend on our Calls for Information, you will now find them promimently highlighted in a box in our News section. If you haven't already, we hope you will begin depending on our Web site for more extensive "How to Reach Us" information, including submission guidelines. In the coming months, the Web site itself will be completely redesigned. At that time, we will also begin to introduce new features, such as our long-awaited reviews database, improved searching of our archives and many other Web-only resources.

Meanwhile—dare I say it?—you can judge us by both of our covers.