Analysing Magazine Covers - Introduction

Now that I've finished looking at the basic design/layout features of posters and compiled a list of different types of film publication, i've decided to look at three different types of film magazine covers to make a note of the typical conventions.

I have chosen a mainstream magazine (Empire), an independent magazine (Sight and Sound) and a magazine that specifically focuses on genre (SFX) to see if the basic conventions are the same even though the film publications focus on different types of films and are aimed at different audiences.