Today’s WSJ is reporting that Jann Wenner is getting ready to launch a fashion quarterly “designed to give readers a guide to dressing and primping like the celebrities who appear in the magazine’s weekly pages,” according to the WSJ.

If this is true, it would signal a clear effort by Wenner to steal a piece of the success achieved by People’s style spin-off Stylewatch, which now appears monthly.

StyleWatch this year raised its guaranteed circulation by 100,000 to 650,000 and now sells more copies on the newsstand than more established fashion monthlies like Elle and Vogue.

Wenner says that the “new fashion quarterly will appeal to a younger and more sophisticated audience than People’s spin offs. It will be more focused on celebrities and have guest columns from makeup artists and top Hollywood stylists, who will offer shopping advice. The new York company initially plans to print 450,000 copies of the quarterly, but Wenner hopes to increase the publication’s frequency to as many as eight issues in 2010 and 10 issues in 2011.

Will this ever happen?

If there was a bet to be placed on you ever seeing this hit the newsstand, I say bet all of your money that it WON’T.

Why?

A few years ago, back in 2005, Wenner made a somewhat similar grand announcement - but it was in the New York Times.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Next summer, if all goes as planned, they [Wenner] will start another weekly, aimed at being a one-stop read for busy women. Stories about real-life experiences and high-profile crimes will mix with celebrity coverage, plus lifestyle and fashion features. Primarily positioned as a younger version of People, it will seek to blend elements from Real Simple, Lucky and Us Weekly.”

Sure, Wenner was announcing a weekly.  And it was a little bit of a different formula than today’s announcement.  But, it never happened!

And today’s news sounds like a big publicity stunt.

For months, there have been reports of Wenner attempting to sell Us Weekly with no takers as of yet.

Today’s announcement only increases the perceived value of Us Weekly and I suspect many publishers will see this WSJ article, panic, and begin figuring out a way to buy Us Weekly.

It also takes the heat off of Wenner for last week’s Palin cover and points the media in a new direction.  Many will want to find out about the new Wenner magazine instead of talking about that Palin cover.

BTW - Jann says that he was on vacation and Janice decided on that Palin cover.   Damn, I wish they could send covers via email, or that they had cell phones that worked anywhere on the planet, or you could fax a cover?

What a wonderful world that would be.

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