The New Yorker's Broken Arch Cover Wins Cover of the Year

Posted on May 20, 2015

The New Yorker is the winner of the this year's Cover of the Year in the ninth American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) Best Cover Contest. The December 8, 2014 issue of The New Yorker which features a broken black and white version of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

The New Yorker issue contained a story about the protests in Ferguson and the shooting of an teenager Michael Brown by police. Bob Staake is the artist behind the cover.

Staake says in an post on newyorker.com, "I wanted to comment on the tragic rift that we’re witnessing. I lived in St. Louis for seventeen years before moving to Massachusetts, so watching the news right now breaks my heart. At first glance, one might see a representation of the Gateway Arch as split and divided, but my hope is that the events in Ferguson will provide a bridge and an opportunity for the city, and also for the country, to learn and come together."

The ASME says 100 print magazines submitted 270 covers to the 10 different categories. There were also Readers' Choice awards in each category. A Paper magazine cover featuring Kim Kardashian won the overall Readers' Choice Award.

The winners were honored at the ASME Annual Meeting on May 7, 2015. A complete list of the winners and finalists as well of photographs of the magazine covers can be found here on magazine.org.