Here’s a contemporary quandary: What right does the subject of a magazine cover have to control how his image is presented?

That’s the situation facing both editors and fans of Lance Armstrong as they wonder about this month’s Outside magazine cover. If you didn’t know anything about it, you’d think that there was Lance with his usual sense of age-defying assertiveness, wearing a T-shirt that reads: “38,” which is his age. And “BFD,” which stands for “Big F***ing Deal.”

Except that Lance never wore such a T-shirt. Those numbers and letters were Photoshopped on it and him afterward.

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Although the websites of AARP Magazine and AARP Bulletin are not identical, there are so many similarities (and even duplications of content, execution, style and philosophy) that it's possible to judge one fairly by judging the other. As I have already furnished a reasonably searching evaluation of AARP Bulletin, I offer its general conclusions about execution to cover those of AARP Magazine, too.

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You’ve got to like a website that can credibly present a headline such as “Ex-Akron teacher, 85, crowned Ms. Senior Ohio” along with a headline such as “The Rolling Stones shine a light on Exile on Main St. reissue.” Because, let’s not forget, The Rolling Stones are chronologically seniors, much like Ms. Senior Ohio, however nimble Mick Jagger may appear as he prances around the stage. That website is the digital version of the AARP Bulletin, the monthly news-oriented publication of the American Association of Retired People.

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Yes, there are exceptions, more or less: Oprah’s O and People and a few others that have presented at least some resistance to the worst of the economic trends in publishing. But it is as if the gross downturn of revenues has not only dampened prospects, it has dampened creativity.

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