NOW we have an inkling as to why 62-year-old Jann Wenner might want to take the money and run when it comes to Us Weekly.
In a just-released industry report, it appears that the magazine, which has grown by leaps and bounds for most of the past eight years, may finally be reaching its peak.
Based on the first five months of this year, Us Weekly is having a little trouble meeting its commitment to advertisers to sell 1.9 million copies a week via subscriptions or newsstand sales.
According to the industry newsletter Circ Matters, Us Weekly is 4.1 percent below its new 2008 rate-base promise for the January-to-May period. The report is based on sales for the 19 issues that the Wenner Media-owned magazine has on file with the Audit Bureau of Circulations Rapid Report.
To be fair, Rapid Report is a fairly new invention and there is some rough estimating involved. It is based on returns from wholesalers, so there might be some adjustments when the ABC’s FAS-FAX report for the first full half are released in several weeks.
Us Weekly Publisher Victoria Lasdon Rose insisted, “We do fully intend to make our rate base.”
In the second half of 2007, the magazine was promising to deliver only 1.85 million copies. It made it only because it was able to add 83,727 “verified” copies a week to its paid circulation, which pushed the total to 1,928,852.
“Verified” are basically free copies that the ABC determines were handed out rather than dumped in a landfill.
They are used to keep advertisers happy, but are not considered to be quite as high-quality as copies that are paid for.
Janice Min, editor of Us Weekly, 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.
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.
Payoff
The decision by Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief John Huey and CEO Ann Moore to allow People magazine to pay top dollar for celebrity baby and wedding pictures has paid off in increased newsstand sales.
Circ Matters said the magazine is 9.4 percent above its rate base guarantee of 3,425,000 copies a week from subscriptions and newsstand sales. It’s an improvement over 2007, when sales slumped.
The top-selling issue in the period was the one with photos of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony‘s twin babies. The issue sold 2.2 million copies on newsstands, sources told Media Ink.
Notwithstanding its recent loss of the photos of Matthew McConaughey‘s baby to OK! this week, People looks like it will be a serious player in the pay-for-photo bracket for the long haul.
OK! is OK
The Richard Desmond-owned OK! is believed to have lost well over $100 million since its launch, but its investment is showing some newsstand growth.
Through May, it’s running 1 percent above its new rate base guarantee of 900,000 – and giving People its only real competition in the pay-for-play photo race.
“We’ll have a trifecta of baby photos over the next three weeks, Jessica Alba, Jamie Lynn Spears and Matthew McConaughey. We think our readers are going to eat ’em up,” said OK! Publisher Tom Morrissy.
But the real test may come in the second half of the year. This week, it raised its cover price to $3.49 from $2.99, the second time in its three-year history that it raised prices.
No touch
Bauer Publications, once deemed newsstand wizards, still haven’t solved the puzzle with In Touch and Life & Style.
After failing to deliver on promises to advertisers last year in terms of rate-base guarantees on circulation, the company took the painful step of slashing its rate bases this year – bringing In Touch to 1 million from 1.2 million, and Life & Style to 550,000 from 700,000.
But the company is still having trouble meeting the reduced rate.
In Touch was 0.9 percent below its rate base on average, missing nine of 17 times, while Life & Style was off 0.7 percent, despite two cost-saving double issues at the start of the year.
Shining
Star Magazine, which slashed its rate-base guarantee twice last year, is apparently having no trouble meeting its new base of 1.25 million.
Through May, the magazine is said to be running 5.8 per cent ahead of its new base.
Newsstand sales under new Editor Candice Trunzo are said to have rebounded from the final days of Bonnie Fuller, who lost control of the magazine last year and was finally ousted in May.