Dear Reader,

Some time over 10 years ago, I attended a national magazine conference in Toronto. One of the workshops I attended offered lessons in increasing online readership. The speaker was a guy from CNN.com. His entire job was to repackage articles. All day, every day, he would present the same story in different ways: change the title, move it around on the website.

What he found was that no matter what he did, the really serious, important stories—the example he used was Russian wheat prices and their impact on global food security—would never, EVER, get the same attention as Kim Kardashian’s butt size. People would say they wanted the serious, important stuff, but the web stats showed that where they actually spent their time was on celebrity “infotainment”.

That was the message in my head when I decided to put Justin Trudeau (then candidate Trudeau) on the cover of our September edition.

The back story: inhouse reporter Ashley Fitzpatrick has spent years following the Muskrat Falls story (spoiler alert—she’s writing a book about it). Alternately acclaimed as a strategic investment in Newfoundland and Labrador’s (and Canada’s) green energy future/a defiant single digit salute to Quebec over Churchill Falls/a massive bankrupting boondoggle, Muskrat Falls is one of the most important and controversial developments in eastern Canada’s recent history. The story was made even more timely and topical by recent rumblings about a so-called Atlantic Loop (increasing access to Labrador hydroelectricity to all four Atlantic provinces plus Quebec) and a pre-election federal government rate mitigation plan to offset Muskrat Falls debt. A rate mitigation plan that was announced by the prime minister at the time: Justin Trudeau.

Granted, we could have put a dramatic picture of a water fall on the cover. Or a panorama of hydro lines through the Labrador wilderness. But Trudeau was central to the story. And Cover Design 101 says putting people on the cover ALWAYS attracts more readers than objects.

When I decided to put Trudeau on the cover, the election hadn’t yet been called—but the writ was expected to be dropped any day. Recognizing that politicians today are as much celebrity as statesman, I made the deliberate choice to carpe diem the heck out of the election opportunity in the hopes that people would (a) buy the magazine and (b) read our equivalent of the Russian wheat price story: a 7,500-word carefully researched investigation of Muskrat Falls, the Atlantic Loop and its potential to finally launch—for the first time in Canadian history—a national energy grid.

Did it work? You tell me.

Were you more likely or less likely to pick up the magazine because of the person on the cover? And if you did pick it up, did you stop at the cover or read the full story?

Dawn Chafe
Executive Editor & co-owner
Atlantic Business Magazine