La portada no me convenció, pero el titular del artículo era muy bueno.

Because me means me and shows who was affected by the verb.

• convencer a alguien = to convince someone / to win someone over
• me convenció = it convinced me
• te convenció = it convinced you
• nos convenció = it convinced us

In this sentence, la portada is the thing doing the convincing, and me is the person reacting to it.

A useful note: in Spanish, convencer can sound broader than English to convince. It often means something like:

• to win someone over
• to make a good impression on someone
• to seem convincing or appealing

So La portada no me convenció is very natural Spanish.

In Spanish, no normally goes before the verb. If there is an object pronoun like me, te, lo, la, etc., the order is:

no + pronoun + verb

So:

• no me convenció
• no lo vi
• no te gustó

You cannot say me no convenció.

This is one of the most important things in the sentence.

• convenció is preterite
• era is imperfect

Why?

convenció (preterite)

The speaker presents the reaction to the cover as a complete event:

• La portada no me convenció
  = the cover did not win me over / did not convince me

It sounds like a finished judgment about that specific cover.

era (imperfect)

The speaker presents the headline as a description or quality:

• el titular del artículo era muy bueno
  = the article’s headline was very good

The imperfect often gives background, description, or evaluation rather than a single completed action.

So the contrast is very natural:

• one completed reaction: no me convenció
• one descriptive quality: era muy bueno

Yes, but it would change the feel.

• era muy bueno sounds descriptive: the headline was very good
• fue muy bueno sounds more like a completed assessment of it as a whole, often more event-like or summary-like

In this sentence, era muy bueno is the more natural choice because the speaker is describing the quality of the headline, not narrating a separate completed event.

Portada usually means the cover or front page, depending on context.

Possible meanings include:

• the cover of a magazine
• the front page of a newspaper
• the cover page of a publication
• sometimes the main page of a website

Here, because the sentence also mentions el titular del artículo, it likely refers to the visible front/cover part where the article was presented.

This is a very common question.

titular

In journalism, titular means headline.

• el titular del artículo = the article’s headline

título

This usually means title.

• el título del libro = the title of the book
• el título de la película = the title of the film

So in a newspaper or news-style context:

• titular = headline
• título = title

They are related ideas, but they are not always interchangeable.

Because de + el contracts to del in Spanish.

So:

• de + el = del
• a + el = al

Examples:

• el titular del artículo
• la portada del libro
• voy al mercado

One important exception: If El is part of a proper name, you do not contract it.

• de El Escorial
  not del Escorial when El belongs to the name

But here el artículo is just a normal noun phrase, so del is required.

Spanish uses definite articles more often than English does.

In this sentence, each noun is presented as a specific thing:

• La portada = the specific cover/front page being discussed
• el titular = the specific headline
• del artículo = of the specific article

English sometimes drops articles where Spanish keeps them, but here the articles are very normal and expected.

Because muy is used before adjectives and adverbs to mean very.

• muy bueno = very good
• muy interesante = very interesting

Mucho usually means much/many/a lot, not very.

Compare:

• muy bueno = very good
• mucho texto = a lot of text
• me gusta mucho = I like it a lot

So era muy bueno is correct.

Because it agrees with titular, which is masculine singular.

• el titular → masculine singular
• therefore bueno → masculine singular

Agreement examples:

• el titular era bueno
• la portada era buena
• los titulares eran buenos
• las portadas eran buenas

Adjectives in Spanish often change form to match the noun in gender and number.

Because pero is the normal word for but when you are contrasting two ideas.

• La portada no me convenció, pero el titular del artículo era muy bueno.

This means: one thing was not good, but another thing was good.

Sino is used after a negation when the second part corrects or replaces the first idea.

For example:

• No era aburrido, sino interesante.
  = It wasn’t boring, but rather interesting.

In your sentence, the second clause does not replace the first one. It just contrasts with it. So pero is correct.

Yes, and it would be natural, but the meaning changes slightly.

no me gustó

This simply means:

• I didn’t like the cover

no me convenció

This suggests something like:

• it didn’t win me over
• it didn’t quite persuade me
• it didn’t make a strong enough impression

So convencer can sound a bit more nuanced than just gustar. It may suggest that the cover looked promising but ultimately was not convincing or appealing enough.

Not always. In this sentence, yes, it is a noun meaning headline.

But titular can also have other meanings, depending on context, such as:

• owner
• holder
• main / permanent in some formal expressions

For example:

• el titular de una cuenta = the account holder
• profesor titular = tenured/full professor in some systems

So context matters. Here, because it is paired with del artículo, the meaning is clearly headline.