Been a bit quiet here on the cover front. Mainly because we haven’t done any good ones in a while I’ve been really busy.

There will be many MANY 9/11 covers in the coming weeks and I’m certain that this will not be the best one of that lot. But, I’m a sucker for aerial photography so I’m easily sold on this one.

All credit for the picture goes to Karen Frank - our deputy photography director - who found this Vincent Laforet shot at the last minute. I’m all the more grateful for Karen’s find as I managed to somehow not know what was on the cover until Tuesday lunchtime (and we send the cover on Wednesday morning). I thought we were doing a Rahm Emanuel cover…

Anyway, I’m quite glad we’ve got our 9/11 cover out the way early, with a short (but good) story inside. These are the issues that posturing editors like to make big grand statements with enormous single topic zeitgeist-capturing feature wells - photo essays, first persons, graphics, essays by eminent thinkers, artist commission photography, covers and imagery, crowd sourced content.. the whole shebang. The pressure to perform and make stand-out issues is intense as magazines compete for the imaginary ‘who did the best 9/11 coverage’ awards. I’m already finding it all a bit tiring - so without sounding like a spoil-sport - I feel quite happy to sit this one out and let others mark this momentous occasion.

(NB - And yes yes, the cover owes a debt of inspiration to Mark Farrow’s Spiritualized album cover - 65 Haas Grotesque centered, what could be simpler?)