Cover date: Difference between revisions

The '''cover date''' of a [[periodical publication]] is the date displayed on the cover, which is not necessarily the true date of [[publication]] (the '''on-sale date'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> or '''release date'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA; 'Release date (comics)' redirects here-->); later cover dates are common in [[magazine]] and [[comic book]] publishing. More unusually, ''[[Le Monde]]'' is a [[daily newspaper]] published the afternoon before its cover date. For some publications, the cover date may not be found on the [[Book cover|cover]], but rather on an inside jacket or on an interior page.

In the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, the standard practice is to display on magazine covers a date which is some weeks or months in the future from the publishing or release date. There are two reasons for this discrepancy: first, to allow magazines to continue appearing "current" to [[consumer]]s even after they have been on sale for some time (since not all magazines will be sold immediately), and second, to inform newsstands when an unsold magazine can be removed from the stands and returned to the [[publisherPublishing|publishing company]] or be destroyed (in this case, the cover date is also the '''pull date''').<ref>{{cite web|author=Cecil Adams |url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/780/why-are-magazines-dated-ahead-of-the-time-they-actually-appear |title=Why are magazines dated ahead of the time they actually appear? |publisher=The Straight Dope |date=1990-06-22 |access-date=2013-06-28}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Head |first=Will |date=June 2000 |title=Letters |work=[[Personal Computer World]] |pages=67 |volume=23 |issue=6}}</ref>

Weeklies (such as ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' and ''[[Newsweek]]'') are generally dated a week ahead. Monthlies (such as ''[[National Geographic Magazine]]'') are generally dated atwo monthto three months ahead, and quarterlies are generally dated threehalf monthsa month ahead.