The ASME 2025 Best Cover Contest honors the most outstanding magazine covers and digital images of 2024. Established in 2006, the Best Cover Contest is sponsored and administered by the American Society of Magazine Editors. ASME members choose finalists and winners in 10 categories. The ASME Board of Directors chooses the Cover of the Year. Covers are also posted on Facebook and Instagram, where media consumers choose the winners of the ASME Readers’ Choice Awards.

Magazines and websites, including special-interest and newsstand-only publications, edited and published in the United States are eligible to enter the ASME Best Cover Contest. Other creators and publishers of magazine-like content, including newspapers and newsletters, are also eligible. Marketing and promotional magazines and websites are not eligible. No image may be entered without the approval of the magazine or website that published it. The contest administrators reserve the right to determine if a publication qualifies for entry.

Entry fees for ASME members are $95 per entry. Entry fees for nonmembers are $195. Late entries are subject to an additional $45 per entry. Editors who join ASME before January 30, 2025, are entitled to pay ASME-member entry fees for the 2025 ASME Best Cover Contest. To apply for ASME membership, visit asme.media/membership.

ASME BEST COVER CONTEST AND READERS’ CHOICE AWARDS CATEGORIES
Publications edited by ASME members may submit four entries in each category. Nonmembers may submit two entries in each category. Print or digital content may be entered in any category. The same image may be submitted in no more than two categories. Illustrated covers may be entered in any category.

• Best News and Politics Cover
• Best Entertainment and Celebrity Cover
• Best Business and Technology Cover
• Best Fashion and Style Cover
• Best Lifestyle Cover
  Includes but is not limited to coverage of food, travel, design and leisure
• Best Special Interest Cover
  Includes but is not limited to coverage of parenting, personal finance, crafts, hobbies, fitness and health care
• Best Local Magazine Cover
  Includes but is not limited to city and regional magazine covers
• Best Independent Magazine Cover
  Includes but is not limited to coverage of literature, science, media and society
• Best Conceptual Cover
• Best Illustrated Cover

Category names are intended to describe cover subjects, not magazine genres. Any magazine or website can enter any category, subject to the approval of the contest administrators. A news magazine may, for example, enter covers in the Best Lifestyle Cover category, or a national magazine may enter the Best Local Magazine Cover category.

Entries are subject to the following conditions:

1. Print entries must be dated 2024. Entries dated December 2024/January 2025 or an equivalent, such as Fall 2024/Winter 2025, are eligible; entries dated December 2023/January 2024 or an equivalent are not.
2. Digital entries must have been largely produced in 2024. Screenshots may be requested to verify publication dates.
3. An entry consists of one print or digital image. GIFs and MP4s are eligible for entry. Print and digital versions of the same cover may be submitted as one entry.
4. Split covers may be entered but, for the purposes of the contest, will be considered as one cover. Additional fees will be charged for split covers.
5. The same image, in original or adapted form, may be submitted in no more than two categories.
6. Publications edited by ASME members may submit four entries in each category. Nonmembers may submit two entries in each category.
7. A website channel may submit entries separately from its parent site if the channel has an independent brand identity.
8. The nomination of any publication more than once in any category is subject to the approval of the ASME Board of Directors.
9. Any use of artificial intelligence in the creation of an entry must be described in the entry statement that is part of each submission.
10. The administrators of the ASME Best Cover Contest may at their own discretion extend the deadline for entry in any category.

How the Winners of the ASME Best Cover Contest Are Chosen
Judging groups composed of leading editors, art directors and photo editors choose five finalists, including a winner, in each category. Most judges are members of ASME. A list of the judges is published when the winners of the awards are announced. The ASME Board of Directors chooses the ASME Cover of the Year from the winners in the 10 contest categories. Awards may be withheld in any category in which the entries fall below the standard of excellence set by the ASME Board of Directors or in which the number of entries is deemed insufficient by the contest administrators.

How the Winners of the ASME Readers’ Choice Awards Are Chosen
Every ASME Best Cover Contest entry is posted on Facebook and Instagram. The five images receiving the most likes—based on a weighted scale to account for the differences between Facebook and Instagram—are deemed to be the ASME Readers’ Choice Award finalists. The cover receiving the most likes is deemed the winner. Finalists and winners are also chosen in each of the 10 categories. Each finalist receives a certificate of recognition. Each winner receives an award displaying the winning image. In 2025, covers will be posted on Facebook and Instagram from Monday, March 3, to Monday, March 31.

UNCERTAIN ABOUT WHICH CATEGORY TO ENTER?
Email asme@asme.media or call 212.872.3737

HOW TO ENTER

• All entries must be submitted online at asmebestcovercontest.org.
• Entries must be formatted as high-resolution JPEGs, GIFs or MP4s. Please note GIFs and MP4s cannot be uploaded to Facebook for ASME Readers’ Choice voting; JPEGs will be substituted for GIFs and MP4s.
• Barcodes should be removed from print covers.
• Entrants are advised to review the online entry forms before preparing submissions.

Each entry must include a statement no longer than 100 words explaining why the entry merits recognition. Entries must include the names of the chief editor, the chief art director, the chief photo editor if applicable, and the photographer or illustrator. Any use of artificial intelligence must be reported.

Entry fees for ASME members: $95 per entry
Entry fees for nonmembers: $195 per entry
For split covers, $50 will be charged for each additional cover

ASME membership must be current as of the date of entry for members to be eligible for the ASME-member fee. ASME members whose dues are past due as of the date of entry will be charged the nonmember entry fee. Journalists who join ASME before the date of entry are also entitled to pay the ASME-member fee. To apply for ASME membership, visit asme.media/membership. Entry fees will be refunded for entries withdrawn on or before January 30, 2025, but no entry fees will be refunded after that date.

Deadline for Entry: 9:00 p.m. ET, Thursday, January 30, 2025
Late entries will be accepted until 9:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, February 6, subject to an additional $45 fee per entry. Entries received after February 6 may be accepted at the discretion of the administrators of the awards but will be subject to a $95 late fee.

ASME 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards Voting on Facebook and Instagram
Begins Monday, March 3, 2025
Ends Monday, March 31, 2025

DISCLAIMER All entries are property of the American Society of Magazine Editors, which reserves the right to use the material for presentation and promotion purposes. Entrants grant permission to ASME to show or duplicate entries and information provided as ASME deems appropriate. ASME shall not be held liable for the loss of any entry for any reason whatsoever. Any entry which does not contain all the information requested will be disqualified.