Damn. And UK Elle was doing so well for a moment...
Neither cover is selling themselves to me. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley doesn't have the "cream of the crop" star power either as a model or an actress to really sell this on her own, and nothing about her or the cover says, "learn more about me here & NOW, because I'm worth making a note of." At the same time, there isn't a lot of pleasant or attractive imagery that is associated with the color beige, and the overbearing use of it actually makes me a bit dry in the throat - the sandy desert is the first thing that comes to mind here. But then it fits, because the vast emptiness of it also pretty much describes my interest in Rosie H-W, and these covers do nothing to awake it.
There is also something odd about her lips here. I don't know what it is, but they are nevertheless charging at me from the newsstands cover like a pair of elephants.
At any rate, this feels like the first clear sign of a downward trend in class in the magazine's standard practice in cover photography (of which there have been some inklings already earlier this year). Undressing yourself or bare chests is in no way a novelty on a (fashion) mag cover, but it is a step away (read: step down) from some of their earlier covers which have relied more on clothing and powerful poses than they have on skin and suggestive intimations.