NEWSSTAND PERKS UP: Brangelina certainly are good for the weekly tabloid business.
People magazine can probably expect to reap a sizable newsstand windfall from its current issue, with the first official confirmation of Angelina Jolie‘s pregnancy. But, if so, it won’t be the only one seeing signs of life after the celebrity category’s lackluster fourth quarter. Us Weekly’s Jan. 9 issue appears to have been one of the five top sellers in the title’s history. Early sales projections are placing the issue’s single-copy total somewhere north of 1.2 million, according to sources in the weekly market. The issue’s main cover line was “Nick’s Side of the Story: The Secrets Jessica’s Ex Has Been Keeping,” but a strip along the side was devoted to the “Angelina Baby Mystery.” A spokeswoman said despite the recent slowdown — WWD reported earlier that Us’ fourth-quarter newsstand average was down 15 percent from the previous quarter — the title’s single-copy average for the second half of 2005 as a whole will be up over the previous year.
Meanwhile, Life & Style broke the 800,000 mark for the first time with its Jan. 16 issue (cover line: “Angelina: I’m Pregnant!”). The Jolie-Brad Pitt union also produced a hit for In Touch in its Jan. 2 issue, which sold 1.25 million copies (versus an average of 1.1 million) by promising to go “Inside Their Wedding.” And Star, after a run of issues that sold in the 800,000 range, bounced back to 900,000 with a cover about the couple’s “Wedding and Baby Drama.”
— Jeff Bercovici
TRANSATLANTIC CROSSING: Anna Wintour must be homesick.
Vogue magazine is bringing all things British to New York from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2 with “Vogue Takes London to New York,” a cluster of Anglo-theme parties, performances and shopping events. Currently on the schedule: a concert with British bands and high tea hosted by Vogue senior fashion writer Mark Holgate, Lucy Sykes and other local “It” girl transplants.
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The magazine’s business side organized the event, timed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute’s upcoming “AngloMania” exhibit and the past two issues of Vogue, which featured Brit cover girls Sienna Miller and Keira Knightley. Clients Vogue has enlisted to participate include Links of London, Jo Malone, Mulberry, Boots, Stella McCartney and Burberry.
— Sara James
IVENS ENLIVENS OK: Following a rash of speculation about OK’s future in America, the fledgling weekly’s executives are anxious to clarify what changes they are, and aren’t, planning. First, what they aren’t doing: A spokesman for the magazine said editor in chief Sarah Ivens is absolutely not stepping down anytime soon. Reports have claimed Ivens was merely marking time in the job until April, when Nicola McCarthy‘s noncompete agreement with Wenner Media expires. (McCarthy ditched Us Weekly, where she was executive editor, a year ago to head OK’s launch, only to be barred by court order from doing so; instead, she’s been working on foreign editions.) But now McCarthy is pregnant, with a spring due date, and plans to take an extended maternity leave, according to the spokesman. When she returns, he added, it will not be as editor in chief.
What is changing, first of all, is OK’s cover price. As first reported in WWD, it will be reduced from its current $3.29 to $1.99 for a 13-week trial beginning Feb. 16. (Thirteen weeks is the minimum duration Wal-Mart will allow for a price promotion.) The spokesman said the discount was intended to induce readers who had seen only early issues of OK to give the magazine another chance. Compared with those early issues, which essentially replicated the U.K. edition with different celebrities, more recent issues feel much more “Americanized” — meaning news-driven rather than feature-driven. Continuing that evolution, the “Hot Stars” section, now published as a tear-out magazine-within-a-magazine, will be eliminated next month. The content of the section, which is aimed at younger readers, will be merged back into OK, said the spokesman.
As for claims by competitors that OK’s newsstand sales have been far below the 250,000-275,000 level the company has claimed, the spokesman noted that, as of Jan. 1, OK is being audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
— J.B.