OK! to Become Weekly Version of Elle

A celebrity weekly insider tells CoverAwards exclusively that OK! Magazine’s publisher Lori Burgess is instructing staffers that the new focus of OK! Magazine is to become “Elle Weekly.”

Burgess doesn’t have to look far for her inspiration. Her previous experience includes serving as publisher for Elle Magazine.

Today’s news follows CoverAwards’ exclusive on the departure of OK! Magazine’s west coast executive editor Mary Ann Norbom.

It also coincides with the hiring of editorial consultant Juliet Gray.

Gray received a ton of flack over the weekend for asking staffers to fill out a questionnaire describing what they do for the magazine.

Within that questionnaire, two questions were asked to the staffers that further support OK!’s new direction:

• What are two hot, buzz-worthy lifestyle topics and why?
• Give me one non-news celebrity lifestyle cover package. Please sell
  this to me in 3 sentences.

More Evidence

According to Defamer, the magazine has hired Jason Oliver Nixon, once editor of Gotham.  The site is speculating that he will oversee OK!’s editor in chief Katie Caperton, who was just recently named editor in chief of the magazine.

Will it Work?

A lifestyle weekly has been tried twice in recent years.  The most prominent failure was Celebrity Living, which was published by American Media.   It closed very shortly after its launch.

Then, of course, there’s Life & Style Weekly.  (full disclosure: I served as Life & Style’s GM & EIC).   The magazine clearly started off with a mission focused on celebrity lifestyle but transformed itself into a celebrity weekly magazine similar to other competitors on the newsstand.

At the time, the shift away from lifestyle to a celebrity news focus – especially on the cover – worked quite well.  The magazine was named Launch of the Year and was the fastest growing magazine in the country at points selling more than 900,000 copies on the newsstand.

With Celebrity Living closing and Life & Style shifting its focus away from this lifestyle approach, why would OK! Magazine pursue this direction?

It’s About Ad Sales

With this direction coming from the publisher of the magazine, it appears that the magazine feels it can grab a bigger piece of the advertising pie by moving in this direction.

But, here’s the problem.

Lifestyle covers do not sell on the newsstand.  That’s the sad truth for OK!  And many advertisers look to the newsstand as the barometer for the magazine’s success.

On another note, OK! will find it difficult to develop “juicy” lifestyle content inside the magazine on a weekly basis.

Bottom Line:

Look for another change in direction in less than 3 months.

Mark Pasetsky