100 years of TIME magazine and more than a thousand stories printed on its covers

On March 3, 2023, the New York magazine celebrates its 100th anniversary TIME since its first publication and it does so by leaving behind a trail of controversial covers that have told a lot of history through its characters. Current personalities like Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, or the current ruler of the United States, Joe Biden; and other historical figures such as the human rights activist Nelson Mandela, the scientist Albert Einstein, and the journalist Oprah Winfrey have marked the international community with the influence of their pages.

After its first publication, a century of its popular covers has been completed. Without its characteristic bright red borders, at that time, and with only 32 pages thick, it was born with the aim of focusing on society and for society under what many are unaware is an acronym: TIME is actually the ‘reduced version’ of the expression ‘Today Information Means Everything’.. Currently, the magazine has become one of the most popular references in journalism, especially due to the quality of the illustrated characters on its covers and the introduction of a new way of practicing the profession focusing on people.

With close to 54 million readers and a wide diffusion throughout the world, the magazine has been present at each and every one of the most relevant milestones in recent history, in addition to highlighting, each year, significant personalities of that time or even of the century. Examples of them have been the covers dedicated to the famous presenter Ellen DeGeneres when she came out publicly in 1997 with its world famous headline ‘Yep, I’m Gay’, (Yes, I’m gay); the scientific Tu Youyou, for his scientific research to cure malariaor the famous appointment of Person of the Century to the famous thinker and scientist Albert Einstein, in volume 154, of 1999, due to his famous Theory of Relativity and studies on space and time.

Controversy haunts TIME magazine, and vice versa

Something that has characterized this magazine over the last 100 years, in addition to its striking covers, has been the commotion it has caused. His cover of the German military man and dictator, Adolf Hitler, in 1939 is widely known, but not as an “honorable” trait, as TIME founder Henry Luce explained, “but as a distinction that was applied to this individual for being newsworthy.” , one who seriously influenced world events, for better or worse.”

The magazine has always marched in accordance with events and on occasions those represented on its covers were not personalities but moments in history that needed other, more pluralistic voices to make themselves known. Covers like ‘You are the person of the year’ are proof of this; On this occasion, the intention was to give prominence to citizens as the main actors in the information age. the one of ‘We are Americans *but not legally’ is another example: this represented the situation of almost 12 million Spanish-speaking immigrants without legal protection living in the United States.

One case that became a symbol for immigration in the United States was the famous cover titled ‘Welcome to America’ in which the former president of the country was represented donald trump Looking at a heartbroken girl after her mother was detained at the Texas border. The cover consisted of a montage made by the famous photographer John Moore with which he denounced the migratory situation of thousands of people who arrived in the North American country and faced from the beginning the lack of flexibility of the authorities due to the separation of their closest relatives. children before crossing the border.

The last ‘Person of the Year’ for the magazine has been Volodimir Zelensky, coinciding with the first anniversary of the conflict with Russia and whose accompanying epithet is ‘The spirit of Ukraine’. As the magazine has highlighted, the reason for the literary resource is due to the fact that Zelensky completely refused to leave the country and decided to stay to lead it from the beginning of the war, on February 24, 2022. Such striking and controversial headlines now also define history of the magazine, which has been setting trends since its inception. Numerous artists, scientists, politicians and television stars have been seen in it, but a large number of events have also been recounted from the roaring twenties, through the First World War, the Korean War, the Afghan War, the Syrian conflict and not so far away, what the magazine called the ‘annus horribilis’ of this century, the crisis of coronavirus in 2020, and in which up to 1.5 million people died worldwide.

Who’s Behind TIME’s People of the Year

The idea of ​​choosing a Person of the Year did not always accompany the magazine in all its issues. It was from the cover of the American pilot Charles Lindbergh in 1927 when they decided to create a specific method for the election of a certain character per year. The magazine says that it was a mistake that led them to redefine their covers: realizing that they had not included in any issue of that year the famous Lindbergh flight across the Atlantic from west to east was the reason why months later they decided to create a copy that would be titled ‘The Man of the Year’ —since 1999 it has been known as the Person of the Year— so as not to forget this event and which worked so well that they decided to perpetuate it annually.

But how is the Person of the Year decided? According to TIME magazine, the choice of a relevant character has to have some archival value, that is, ideally, it should be a personality that reflects where society is at and where it is going. This is why the election has no moral or ethical value, but only represents a personality that has set the course for the moment. For the election of an ideal character during the year, the magazine publishes a list of nominations of personalities expected to appear on the cover as the Person of the Year for that period and it is the editorial management, together with their research teams, who decide in autumn to the character that will be out in December. However, many times one is not chosen person of the yearbut rather a theme or social issue that has been most relevant during that period is chosen, as was the case of the multiple demonstrations around the world in 2011 or that of the scientists against Ebola in 2014.