On Covers of Many Magazines, a Full Racial Palette Is Still Rare
By DAVID CARR NY TIMES

Halle Berry, in her role as the sexy superspy Jinx in "Die Another Day," helps James Bond save the world from certain doom. But Ms. Berry may be performing an even more improbable feat as the cover model of the December issue of Cosmopolitan magazine.

[and she's rumoured to be on December's Vogue cover as well - saltyt]

Ms. Berry became only the fifth black to appear on the cover of Cosmopolitan since the magazine began using cover photographs in 1964, and she is the first since Naomi Campbell in 1990. Ms. Berry is evidently one of a tiny cadre of nonwhite celebrities who are deemed to have enough crossover appeal to appear on the cover of mass consumer magazines.

There are signs that the freeze-out may beginning to thaw, as the continuing explosion of hip-hop has pushed many black artists into prominence, and as teenagers' magazines that are less anxious about race are bringing more diversity. But in many broad-circulation magazines, the unspoken but routinely observed practice of not using nonwhite cover subjects — for fear they will depress newsstand sales — remains largely in effect.

A survey of 471 covers from 31 magazines published in 2002 — an array of men's and women's magazines, entertainment publications and teenagers' magazines — conducted two weeks ago by The New York Times found that about one in five depicted minority members. Five years ago, according to the survey, which examined all the covers of those 31 magazines back through 1998, the figure was only 12.7 percent. And fashion magazines have more than doubled their use of nonwhite cover subjects.

But in a country with a nonwhite population of almost 30 percent, the incremental progress leaves some people unimpressed.

Both Cosmo and O are published by Hearst magazines. As a newsstand giant, selling two million copies a month, Cosmo uses a near scientific blend of sex and Middle American beauty on its covers — a formula that does not seem to include black women. O magazine, in contrast, transcends race with a new, spiritually based female empowerment.

Publishing is a conservative industry, one that has been known to define risk as using a cover model with dark hair instead of blond. But a wave of Latina superstars like Jennifer Lopez, along with genre-breaking athletes like Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters, have redefined what a celebrity looks like. And the audience is changing as well. In the last five years, the nonwhite audience for magazines has increased to 17 percent from 15 percent, according to Mediamark Research Inc.

Yet, even as black and Hispanic women slowly make their way onto the covers of magazines of various genres, black males still find themselves mainly confined to a ghetto of music and sports magazines.

Christina Kelly, now editor in chief of YM, a teenagers' magazine owned by Gruner & Jahr USA, recalls a struggle with the circulation people when she worked as an editor in 1993 at the now-closed Sassy magazine.

"We wanted to put Mecca from the band Digable Planets on the cover because she was huge at the time and gorgeous," she recalled. "The circulation guys hated the idea, but we just went ahead and did it. The magazine was bagged with a separate beauty booklet, which was usually placed in the back, but this time, it was bagged in front. It just happened to have a picture of a blond, blue-eyed woman on it."

Today, magazines like Teen People and YM feature cover subjects of a variety of hues. In the last year, YM has had covers that included nonwhite artists like Ashanti and Enrique Iglesias. And in August, Teen People chose Usher, a black R&B singer, as its No. 1 "hot guy" and featured him on the cover.

"Race is a much more fluid concept among teens," said Barbara O'Dair, managing editor of Teen People.

Magazines for teenagers, because of their reliance on the heavily integrated music industry, use 25 percent nonwhite subjects on their covers. If white teenagers are crossing over to embrace minority artists, many artists are meeting them halfway in terms of style.

Fashion, previously a very segregated world, has become transracial, with young white women adopting street fashion while black artists wear long, flowing tresses. Certain totems of beauty — blond hair, among other things — can now be seamlessly situated on almost anyone regardless of race. The singers Shakira, Beyoncé Knowles, and Christina Aguilera, all nonwhite, have at times worn blond hair that is indiscernible from that of Britney Spears. Read on