One thing I have always admired about National Geographic is their design skills on their magazines, especially how clean they always seem to make them. With the 3 examples above the one that strikes me the most is the middle design. Just that one image and how it is cropped really grasps my attention and intrigues me to continue looking at the rest of the content on the page, even if it may not be related to the image.
When developing a table of contents it is important to direct your readers attention to the most eye grabbing content so that they stay interested, and then continue to keep them interested by the content that follows. I always felt National Geographic has done a great job of this.
Typography Fall 19 