2006 Best Cover Winner

The New Yorker (September 19, 2005) - Flood in the Oval Office

The ineptness of the response by FEMA and the U.S. government after Hurricane Katrina was an outrage to everyone who watched it unfold. The images of bodies floating unclaimed in murky waters were clear signs of the lack of care and empathy by those at the top of the government. In his cover, "Deluged," Barry Blitt turns the tables on the situation. As the Oval Office is slowly submerged, the reader gets a release that goes beyond the first laugh and unleashes the floodgates of the nation's collective anger.

Rolling Stone (May 18-June 1, 2006) - 1,000th issue 3-D cover

No magazine cover of the past year received more attention-or stretched the form as far-as Rolling Stone's remarkable 3-D celebration of the past four decades of American pop culture. The playful and engaging use of the holographic image served as more than a mere visual stunt-it created the ultimate rock fantasy, a lasting and indelible celebration of a milestone in American magazine history.

This cover appeared in the week following North Korea’s decision to launch a Taepodong rocket (which fizzled) and half a dozen others (which worked). The launch, noted The Economist, “was calculated to blast a hole in the diplomatic effort by America, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia to get Kim Jong-il’s regime to give up its nuclear bomb-building.” The Economist worried that Kim Jong-il’s “pyrotechnics” would “incinerate wider efforts to stabilize a region full of dangerous rivalries.” The cover captured the moment by picturing the elusive North Korean leader as dangerous “Rocket man.” Though considered a serious magazine, the cover demonstrates The Economist’s often irreverent take on the world’s events.