Business

A royal letdown

K
ate Middleton and Prince William ended up snagging four celebrity magazine covers this weekend — People, Us Weekly, Star and OK! — but with the exception of People, the engagement isn’t translating into booming sales for the weeklies.

“There were great predictions on how huge it was going to be, but it didn’t happen,” said OK! Editor-In-Chief Richard Spencer.

Nobody releases official numbers since technically the magazines haven’t gone off sale yet, but the early estimates were good for People, which sold 1.3 million to 1.4 million copies on newsstands.

That beat its first-half average of 1,289,000 and was more than twice as many newsstand copies as its nearest competitor — while stopping short of the blockbuster category.

Star did a respectable 430,000 to 450,000 newsstand copies, but again no blockbuster and only slightly more than its first-half average of 415,000 copies. Us Weekly was in the 615,00 to 620,000 range, below its first-half average of 778,043.

OK! tried splashing on its cover that it was the official royal wedding magazine, but estimates place it only in the 275,000 to 300,000 range after several weeks of 400,000-plus, according to industry sources.

The fourth quarter, when magazines compete with everything from Halloween candy to Christmas stockings, is always a slow-moving period, especially Thanksgiving weekend.

But the last time four magazines went with a single-theme celebrity was the death of Michael Jackson over the July 4th weekend and most reported their strongest selling issue of the year.

At this stage of her royal career, Middleton is not coming close to Princess Diana.

“It took 17 or 18 years for Princess Diana to develop that persona,” said Larry Hackett, the managing editor of People. “Kate Middleton has been in the background for most of her courtship with Prince William. Time will tell if she emerges as the towering figure in the pop culture that Princess Diana was.”

Newsweek raid

Newsweek continues to see the defection of top talent as it awaits the official consummation of the deal between its new owner, stereo mogul Sidney Harman, and Barry Diller‘s IAC/ InteractiveCorp. to create a joint venture known as the Newsweek Daily Beast Co.

While Tina Brown has signed on as both the editor-in-chief of the Daily Beast and Newsweek, she hasn’t actually started editing Newsweek.

Today, Harman is slated to make his first-ever appearance before the Beast crowd at IAC’s building on the Far West Side near the Hudson River on West 18th Street.

One of the first questions is likely to be when will the Beast abandon its futuristic glass tower for Newsweek’s more mundane cubbies in downtown Manhattan on 7 Hanover Square. Newsweek moved there last month, vacating its offices at 395 Hudson St. and chopping $6.3 million in rental costs.

When Media Ink caught up with Harman yesterday, he said, “The deal will be finalized by the end of the year.” He said there were no holdups but declined further comment.

In the latest raid, Time magazine has sprinted off with Rana Foroo har, who was a deputy editor in charge of international business and economics coverage for News week.

Foroohar was a big behind-the-scenes power, working on news stories, features and guest articles. She also wrote eco nomic cover stories and opinion pieces, and penned a bi- weekly column on the global economy.

She is also said to be close to Fareed Zakaria, who quit as Newsweek’s international editor to write for Time and appear on CNN, where he had already been doing a regular show.

Foroohar will become an assistant managing editor, responsible for business and economics. She will be one of five AMEs on the staff, who are separated from the top editor Rick Stengel by Deputy Editor Michael Elliott, known as “Tsunami Survivor,” and two executive editors.

“Business is one of the biggest stories of the year and we’re beef ing up in that area,” said a Time spokeswoman.

Foroohar was at Newsweek for a dozen years but didn’t try to wrangle a counteroffer from Diller or Harman.

Foroohar, who starts her new job on Dec. 13, said, “I had a great 12 years at News week, in the field and in New York, but it was time to move on, regardless of any counter.”

kkelly@nypost.com