Time
Time magazine's new covers address the same-sex marriage debate that dominated this week's news. Russell Hart and Eric LaBonté, who have been engaged since 2010, kiss on one cover; Sarah Kate and Kristen Ellis-Henderson, who have been married since 2011, kiss on another.

"We had a long debate in our offices about this week’s cover images of two same-sex couples," Time Managing Editor Rick Stengel writes in an editor's note. "Some thought they were sensationalist and too in-your-face. Others felt the images were beautiful and symbolized the love that is at the heart of the idea of marriage. I agree with the latter, and I hope you do too."

Photographer Peter Hapak shot more couples, and the magazine has a slideshow from his shoots. The last time the magazine featured split cover images was in November 2012; it had two covers on the election and one cover on Hurricane Sandy, which ran in the Northeast.

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The New York Times
The issue of Time featuring Steven Brill's 36-page examination of hospital costs "appears to be on course to become [Time's] best-selling cover in nearly two years," Christine Haughney reports.

It was outperformed only by Steve Jobs, Osama bin Laden and special issues of Person of the Year and the royal wedding. It also broke online records, selling 16 times more than an average week for digital single copy sales and digital subscriptions and becoming the most viewed magazine cover article on Time.com.

The issue "sold more than double the typical number of copies," a Time spokesperson told Haughney.

Bobby Ghosh has been named the editor of Time International, Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief Martha Nelson and Time Managing Editor Rick Stengel told staffers in an announcement Friday morning. "[T]his appointment has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he saved me from getting tear-gassed in Tahrir Square last year," the memo reads.

Jim Frederick is vacating the position "to move on to other challenges," the memo says. He will become a contributing editor. Full text follows. (more...)

Time
Time subscribers in the Northeast are receiving a Hurricane Sandy cover; the photo was taken by Benjamin Lowy and posted on Instagram, Time Editor Rick Stengel writes in an editor's letter. Time hired five photographers to capture Sandy shots via Instagram; here's its gallery of Sandy photos. The magazine's Sandy coverage will be in front of its paywall, a Time spokesperson tells Poynter in an email. (more...)

Time | Forbes | Slate
Judging by the discussion about Time's cover photo of a 3-year-old boy breastfeeding, you'd think that was the subject of the cover story. Well, sort of. The cover story is actually about Dr. William Sears and the attachment parenting movement, but you have to be a subscriber to read it. If for some reason you don't subscribe, there is little to detract you from focusing on what they want to focus on: the cover photo.

As Jeff Bercovici notes, Time was ready for the controversy: The magazine published a Q&A with the mom depicted on the cover, a story and slide show about the photo shoot, and a story about how common extended-breastfeeding is. Time magazine editor Rick Stengel tells Bercovici, "the whole point of a magazine cover is to get your attention."

Mission accomplished, writes Slate's Hanna Rosin:

The image is the natural next step in the hot naked-mama photos that have become an obligatory part of a celebrity career path, (Claudia Schiffer, Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson) and makes Angelina Jolie, who allowed herself to be photographed breast-feeding a mere infant, look like a wimp.

Related: Jim Romenesko points out that his former colleague at Milwaukee Magazine wrote about extended breastfeeding in 2006 (Salon)