Oracle Magazine - May/June 2012

FROM THE EDI TOR
Different Coverage

Each issue of Oracle Magazine collects different editorial content in familiar sections and a particular order. And just as every editorial piece is designed to have an interesting beginning, a constructive middle, and a conclusive end, the various sections of the magazine are arranged for a similar flow. From Up Front, At Oracle, and Community to Features, Technology, and Comment, the idea is to give the magazine a beginning that makes you want to pick it up (in print), click it (for digital), or tap it open (for mobile distributions); a middle that provides information and awareness about Oracle and the Oracle community; and an end that makes you look forward to the next issue.

The beginning of each issue, the very first section and page, is key to getting readers to pick up or open the magazine. And that beginning is the cover.

CURRENT COVERAGE

In most cases, the editorial team settles on only one cover for each issue of Oracle Magazine. In a few cases, however, we’ve published an issue with two different covers—with some subscribers receiving one version and some receiving the other—and that has consistently caused confusion. We’ve typically followed these multicover issues with an explanation, but for this issue of Oracle Magazine, we’d like to get out in front of any potential confusion with the multicover explanation.

The discussion about what story to put on the cover of this particular issue of the magazine was a brief one. How to put that story—featuring Marvel’s The Avengers—on the cover was a much longer conversation. The solution: this issue of Oracle Magazine

has been published with six different covers, each highlighting one of the Marvel super heroes. Each cover version is numbered— 1 through 6—in the “Special Collector’s Issue” logo.

Who gets what cover? Our print subscribers will receive a printed issue with one of the six covers. All subscribers—print and digital—and iOS application downloaders will be able to view and collect all six cover images. To view and download the cover images, follow the prompts from your digital subscription or your mobile application. All subscribers—and everyone else reading this—are also invited to view and download the cover images from the Oracle Magazine Facebook page at bit.ly/orclmagfb.

I hope whatever cover or covers you view as you begin to explore this issue of Oracle Magazine are the prelude to a successful journey into Oracle technology. And if six cover images don’t provide enough coverage of these particular characters for you—and quite frankly, they’re really not enough for me—The Avengers is in theaters on May 4.