The interim editor who was running In Touch when it broke the story that Jesse James was cheating on his wife Sandra Bullock has been rewarded with the permanent editor-in-chief title.
Michelle Lee was No. 2 on the masthead when Richard Spencer resigned in January.
The magazine missed its 800,000-copy rate base guarantee to advertisers in the second half of 2009, when it averaged sales of 790,395 each week, down 12 percent from the year earlier.
But things have been looking up lately. In Touch sold an estimated 1.33 million newsstand copies of the Bullock issue that hit March 22 with the headline: “The Ultimate Betrayal.” It contained scintillating details and photos of the months-long fling that James had with Michelle “Bombshell” McGee.
In Touch followed up with a 950,000-copy seller the following week — even though all the other celebrity magazines had caught up with the story by then.
“We’re putting a bigger emphasis on breaking news,” Lee said. “The celebrity category is seven- or eight-years old and you have to give the readers something different. The question is, How do you keep their interest?”
The current issue leads with “Charlie Caught Cheating” and captures actor Charlie Sheen trying to disguise his alleged extramarital affair with a “Borat”-style fake moustache.