Window in Esquire cover cost Discovery $250,000

ESQUIRE magazine is offering readers — and advertisers — a window into its front covers, literally and figuratively.

The cover of February’s Esquire prompts readers (or passers-by) to “open here.” The flap reveals an ad for the Discovery Channel and teasers to articles inside.

The February issue of Esquire, on its way now to subscribers and to newsstands, has a window, or flap, in the middle of the cover, next to an invitation to “Open here.” Opening the window reveals quotations from articles inside the issue, adjacent to an advertisement for “One Way Out,” a new series on the Discovery Channel cable network.

Those who leave the window unopened do not see the ad or the quotations.

The Discovery series is, appropriately enough, about an escape artist, Jonathan Goodwin, and his feats. The ad, showing Mr. Goodwin seemingly trapped inside the small space, was created for the cover window.

Esquire charged Discovery Channel about $250,000 for the ad, which includes production costs as well as a regular ad page for “One Way Out” inside the issue. Esquire is considering another kind of unconventional cover, with a pull tab, for the June issue; it would be accompanied by advertising to be sold to BMW of North America.

The cover ads are indicative of efforts by magazines and other traditional media to find additional ways to raise revenue during one of the most challenging economies in decades.
[Source: New York Times]