Time has used the Supreme Court's deliberations over marriage equality as an opportunity for another envelope-pushing cover.
The fold-out cover features a gay male couple and (separately) a lesbian couple in a full-on mouth-to-mouth embrace. The arty photos, shot by Peter Hapak, record the moment in black and white. Like many still-in-print magazines, including The Economist and Bloomberg Businesweek, Time has pushed for more provocative covers of late, a move that can result in earned media for the issue as users pass along the image in social media. (To direct readers, Time is encouraging them to use the hashtag #TIMEGayMarriage.)
Time, which is the last print newsweekly standing after Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report have both gone all-digital, is the anchor for Time Inc., the struggling magazine division that parent company Time Warner is in the process of spinning off.