For newbie I will suggest MSPublisher. Lots of custom templates to choose from. Choose and edit. Its much easier that way.

chewxy, yours one looks more like a comic cover than a magazine to me. Magazine cover are not that colourful and based on genre of magazine. Just go to the newstand and observe. Grab a few good ones and you are on the way to get a good one.
We have to follow first. During infant stage we see how people walk and we follow. It applies to all we learn