People magazine, the first glossy to have a photo of the royal baby on its cover, is expected to show a hefty boost in single-copy sales because of the coup.
“I am pretty confident it is going to hit around 1.4 million,” said Managing Editor Larry Hackett. The issue hit newsstands last week, but it is being carried for two weeks.
The 1.4 million single copies is below the 2 million units sold when Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding was on the cover back in June 2013 — and well back of the 2.4 million that Prince William helped move as a cover boy when he was born to Princess Diana and Prince Charles in 1982.
But the flagship of Time Inc. is generally pleased with the numbers, given the tougher climate surrounding newsstand sales today.
Hackett is predicting the issue will end up as one of the best-selling covers of the year.
In the second half of 2012, People was selling an average of 971,668 copies on newsstands out of its total circulation of 3,637,633.
Newsstand sales have been treacherous in recent years.
Out of its total circulation, People counts an average of 249,587 copies known as “verified,” which are essentially distributed free of charge in order to meet the rate base — the amount of circulation from subscriptions, newsstands sales, and free circulation that it promises advertisers it will deliver each week.
“Everyone knows the newsstand has changed forever,” said Hackett. “In this environment, you certainly can’t be disappointed when you produce your best-selling newsstand cover of the year.”
He also said Time Inc. has changed the way the issues are marketed. Advertisers were alerted that this would be the royal baby issue, and he said ad sales were up 17 pages over a year ago.
And People has returned with Kate Middleton and royal baby George Alexander Louis, Prince of Cambridge, on this week’s cover, with 10 more pages of editorial inside.
And more royal baby covers with William and Kate and the young prince are on the way.
“We’re still waiting for the official baby portraits,” said Hackett. “This is the beginning of a franchise for us.”
Stones tome
“Tough Jews” author Rich Cohen has snagged a big advance for his next book, which will be on the Rolling Stones, from the Spiegel & Grau imprint of Random House.
Cohen was at one point tapped to be the ghostwriter for leveraged buyout king Teddy Forstmann. He accepted the assignment in 2010, but it came to naught when Forstmann died of brain cancer in November 2011.
Cohen has been anything but idle. Last year, he published the bestselling, “The Fish that Ate the Whale,” about Sam Zemurray, who rose from humble roots to become the banana king behind United Fruit Company.
And just in time for the football season, Random House is releasing his latest book, “Monsters, the 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football.”
Cohen, who contributes to Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, was represented by Jennifer Rudolph Walsh at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment.
Surprisingly, the book is not expected to focus on the ’60s and ’70s when Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, et al, were at their wildest, but on the ’90s tours, when they reinvented themselves.
The Cohen book, which is yet untitled, is due out in the fall of 2015, which suggests extensive research — and a hefty advance estimated by one source to be seven figures.
Neither Cohen nor his agent could be reached for comment.
Globe’s going
The sale of the Boston Globe by the New York Times Company appears to be nearing the end.
“We are deep into our efforts to sell the New England Media Group and expect to have more to share on this topic before the end of the third quarter,” said CFO Jim Follo in yesterday’s earnings call with analysts.
He also said the Times would likely keep the paper’s pension obligations in the event of a sale. The unfunded pension obligation is believed to be around $10 million to $20 million — far lower than when the company tried to unload the Globe five years ago.
Unfunded pension obligations and low bids helped to derail the negotiations at that time.
Four serious bidders are reportedly still in the hunt: first cousins Ben and Steve Taylor — who were part of the Taylor family, who sold the Globe to the Times for $1.1 billion way back in 1993; Revolution Capital, which owns the Tampa Tribune; Boston Red Sox owner and billionaire John Henry, doing it as a personal bid after his original group deserted him; and, retired Hill Holliday ad mogul Jack Connors, joined by Boston construction kingpin John Fish.
“I’d bet on either the Taylors or Connors/Fish group, at this point, though John Henry’s late solo bid is meaningful,” said Ken Doctor, a newspaper industry analyst.
The price is expected to be above the $55 million that the Philadelphia Inquirer fetched last year when financial backers sold off the group, but below $100 million — and clearly far below the $1.1 billion price the Times paid in the early ’90s.