Critique: Final Stir Prototype Design

I knew a lot of changes needed to be made prior to presenting my Stir prototype to the Publishing class. I really appreciated all of the feedback I received in class beforehand. I took those comments into consideration in my redesign. I hope everyone liked the changes. My concept stayed the same, but I made many technical changes and I think my redesign looks a lot more professional than my original. But I'll let you be the judge of that.
This is my first version:

And these are the changes I made:

I think my redesign looks more grown up than my original designs. My department spread at first lacked a lot of photography which I think is important to incorporate. My cover in my second design is a little simplified. Many of us agree that less is more when it comes to a magazine. I agree. I think my design in the first cover was a little bit too heavy. I thought the serif/sans serif font mixes helped balance the overall appearance. I hope you guys were more impressed by my second design.