Star Magazine Exceeding Rate Base
Candace Trunzo has reason to smile this morning.
Her stint as EIC at Star magazine is turning out pretty well.
How well?
Janice Min Turns to Faux News Headlines to Boost Sagging Newsstand Sales
Reports have suggested that Jann Wenner wants to sell Us Weekly.
Today’s New York Post provides further evidence as to why he may “want to take the money and run.”
Us Weekly’s sales are down for the first-half of 2008, but Janice Min insisted that “the magazine has had eight years of spectacular growth,” but “record gas and food prices” have worked against them in the first half of this year.
As CoverAwards has predicted, editors would begin to use “gas” prices as an excuse, instead of owning up to developing TERRIBLE covers.
“While conceding that newsstand sales had slipped in the first half, Min said the magazine is off to a good start in the second half, thanks in large measure to breaking the Alex Rodriguez-Madonna dalliance.”
How is Janice Min really getting Us off to a good start?
It’s by turning to covers featuring FAUX HEADLINES like this one:
As you can see…
BYE-BYE US WEEKLY?
That’s what a lot of staffers are saying according to today’s New York Post.
Sources inside Wenner Media, which publishes Us Weekly, said owner Jann Wenner “is going nuts on the budgets” - prompting some longtime staffers to look for jobs elsewhere.
Hmmm. I wonder why he is going nuts? Perhaps covers like this one that will not sell well are pissing him off?
NEW BEER MAG DRINKS TO STRONG SALES!
BREAKING NEWS
Draft magazine was launched in 2006 for under $2 million by a bored corporate lawyer, Austin Cobly Wilson, and his friend, Erika Ann Rietz, who was at Arizona Foothills magazine, according to Keith Kelly at the New York Post.
In just 18 months, the magazine has soared to more than 200,000 circulation plus 60,000 on newsstands.
“I decided to follow the old axiom and do what I love,” said Wilson, who published the first issue in September 2006.
MORE STAFF DEPARTURES AT EVERYDAY WITH RACHEL RAY!
NY Post’s Keith Kelly reports that the latest to bolt from the magazine is Managing Editor Tara Cox and she’s the third top editor to leave the magazine in recent months.
“It’s true, I’m leaving to become the managing editor of Popular Mechanics,” she told Kelly.
For more on Everyday departures, click here.
NY TIMES FACING BLOODBATH!
The NY Post’s Keith Kelly is reporting that the “New York Times’ news room is bracing for a bloodbath in the next 10 days.”
Only 70 journalists have accepted buyouts (out of the 100 needed), which means 30 editorial people will face the ax in the “company’s first-ever mass firing in its 156-year history.
“We’re bracing for it,” said one insider to the NY Post. “There’s a lot of anxiety.”
For more, click here.
(New York Post)
The Fifth Kelly Gang Fundraiser Raises 85K!
“Plenty of business was being cooked up at the fifth annual Kelly Gang fundraiser staged Monday night at Michael’s restaurant in Midtown,” reports Keith Kelly (who hosted the event ) in today’s New York Post.
Face-Off: The Atlantic vs. In Touch! I’m NOT Kidding!
Which one would you buy?
I think The Atlantic is giving In Touch a run for its money! Who’s going to become a tabloid next? The Economist? The New Yorker? It’s anyone’s guess!
Celebrity Weekly Circulation Wars!
Keith Kelly’s Report on 2nd Half Numbers in Today’s New York Post
It’s a decidedly mixed bag for the weekly celebrity magazines that are getting ready to report their second-half 2007. Here is an excerpt from the article on the weeklies:
Janice Min, editor-in-chief of Us Weekly, will be smiling, as will Sarah Ivens, the editor-in-chief of OK!
However, Larry Hackett, the managing editor of People, may be wearing his smile upside down - at least until the more encouraging 2008 numbers are factored into his mix - six months from now.
The biggest loser on the newsstand looks to be Life & Style, which is expected to report a 10 percent tumble. But there is no editor under the gun, since it lost its editor-in-chief, Mark Pasetsky, and is being run by the In Touch Editor-in-Chief Richard Spencer.
Both magazines put in $1 price hikes to $2.99, but it appears that the big sister title In Touch will come in either flat or slightly down.
When the Audit Bureau of Circulations releases its FAS-FAX numbers next week, Us Weekly’s newsstand numbers are expected to be up 2.7 percent to 1,005,081, with total paid circulation up 10 percent to 1,928,852.
Us Weekly waited several weeks before following the 50-cent price hike that People initiated on Sept. 1, moving from $3.49 to $3.99 to match People.
There are rumblings that Star may soon join them at the higher-priced end of the scale.
OK! has lost more than $85 million on its American edition since launching 21/2 years ago, but it is apparently ready to report another positive circulation story, with single-copy sales jumping to 550,100 from 513,473, when the magazine still cost $1.99.
Total circ is now 935,378, up 24 percent from 757,538 in 2006.
Reports are circulating that OK! is ready to hike its price again from its current $2.99 to $3.49 in March. The company isn’t confirming the move.
People, meanwhile, is expected to show a little softness, with total circulation falling 3.5 percent to 3.7 million and newsstand sales sinking 6 percent to 1.42 million.
The title is still the biggest in the field, but on a few scattered occasions, some of its rivals have outsold it on newsstands.
Time Inc. brass is said to be a little worried by the decline and is looking to the mag a bit more “fizz.”
People’s recent coup of being the only magazine to have the Heath Ledger story on its cover won’t show up until the 2008 first-half numbers are released. The magazine was said to have sold 1.7 million copies on newsstands that week.
Star magazine, which hiked its cover price to $3.49 when People and Us Weekly moved to $3.99, is expected to be off between 3 percent and 4 percent on newsstands to 713,000.
Overall circulation will be off about 10 percent to 1,366,000 from 1,542,000.
That total number, while huge, is not a shock, since the magazine did slash the amount of circulation that it promises to advertisers.
For Keith Kelly’s complete column, click here.
