Keep readers on side

It’s summer, the World Cup is here, the antics of the Big Brother contestants are dazzling as ever – and the question for magazine owners is how to make readers sit up and take notice of your publication.

While Loaded, FHM and their rivals rely on the novel idea of placing scantily clad young maidens on the cover to turn heads, PC Gamer has gone for something altogether more subtle.

The techy title has proudly declared that with its July issue it will be “covermounting a set of six, high-quality precision screw- drivers”.

Apparently, “the four flat-head and two Phillips-head screwdrivers are specially designed for use on delicate PC hardware”.

The Diary is no expert on computers, but it salutes that kind of targeted, precision thinking.