IN the hotly contested world of celebrity weeklies, industry sources were buzzing this week about People magazine taking a rare tumble from atop its throne as the segment leader.
In its place? In Touch, which, after being stuck in the doldrums for most of this year, became the best-selling celebrity mag on the newsstands, selling a whopping 1.2 million copies thanks to its cover photo of Kate Gosselin spanking one of the older of her eight children.
By comparison, People, which was pushing its “Hot Bachelors” issue, sold less than 1.1 million copies, which in addition to being less than In Touch is also well off the 1.75 million copies sold a year ago.
It marks the first time that In Touch Editor-in-Chief Richard Spencer has beaten the industry leader People since Bauer launched In Touch in 2002.
The surge by In Touch — which has average weekly newsstand sales of around 800,000 — came the same week that Us Weekly Editor-in-Chief Janice Min broke from running consecutive Jon and Kate-related covers — seven at last count — and instead opted to run a cover of “The Hills” star Stephanie Pratt, who talks about her battle with bulimia in the issue.
Industry sources said the move bombed, with Us Weekly selling just 750,000 copies.
Sources say that Spencer paid around $75,000 for the explosive photos of Gosselin in spanking action, and it looks like it was money well spent.
Indeed, since the couple on Monday’s episode of their TLC reality series “Jon and Kate Plus 8” announced that they are divorcing, the expectation is that In Touch will get another boost from a late wave of buyers.
Needless to say, People Managing Editor Larry Hackett is striking back with its third cover (below) of Kate Gosse lin and her soon-to-be-ex-husband Jon in just over a month, which hits newsstands Friday. It will feature another exclusive interview with Kate.
People’s first sit- down with Kate in the May 25 issue sold 1.8 million copies, according to the latest estimates, while the June 15 issue, which had an exclusive interview with Jon, sold an estimated 1.7 million copies on newsstands.
Meanwhile, it looks like Min is staying away from the Jon and Kate story for the second week in a row — at least on the cover.
The issue that hits this week will be devoted to the cast of the reality show “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.”
The gamble is that most other celeb mags will go with Jon and Kate covers, which ends up diluting the demand for any one magazine.
Indeed, the rule of thumb in the fiercely competitive niche is that when there are multiple covers with the same theme, People usually outsells the rest of the field, despite having a higher cover price.
Play at home
Lenny “Nails” Dykstra may have mountains of debt and lawsuits piling up from coast to coast, but he is fighting tooth and nail to keep his luxurious estate once owned by hockey legend Wayne Gretzky in the ultra- exclusive Lake Sherwood section of Ventura County, Calif.
Dykstra is said to be about $475,000 behind on his mortgage with Washington Mutual and is in arrears on his county and state prop erty tax to the tune of ap proximately $200,000.
But it is the $900,000 that Index Investors loaned to him for business expenses that ultimately triggered the foreclosure proceedings.
Barring a last-minute re prieve, the nearly seven- acre compound that Gretzky spent $12 million building, and an other $1 million furnishing, is now set to be auctioned July 9 on the steps of the Ventura County courthouse.
Wayne Hackett, an attorney who represents Dykstra, claims Dykstra is facing “an illegal foreclosure” and is fighting back against Index Investors and one of its principals, Jeff Smith.
“It is our view the loan was grossly violative of both state and federal law and as such may not serve as a basis for a non-judicial foreclosure,” Hackett said.
CLARIFICATION
Gretzky did not sell his Ventura County mansion to satisfy gambling debts, and though there were press reports linking his wife Janet to an illegal gambling operation, she was never formally charged and Gretzky was never said to be involved.
In addition, Gretzky listed the home originally for $30 million, but still managed to clear a $5 million profit when it was sold to Dykstra in 2007 for $18.5 million.
Quick draw
Industry sources are trying to figure out why all of a sudden there is a sudden rash of rumors that McGraw- Hill Cos. is shopping Busi nessWeek.
“It wouldn’t sur prise me if it went up,” said one source. “The question is who would buy it?”
Indeed, poten tial suitors would be hard to find.
Time Inc., owners of For tune, has its own troubles, as ad pages there have tumbled 39 percent so far this year. Forbes is down 39 percent. Joe Mansueto, the Morningstar founder, hasn’t had a very good experience owning Inc. and Fast Company.
Bloomberg L.P., the company founded by Mayor Mike Bloomberg, owns a few publications and has former Time Inc. Editor-In-Chief Norman Pearlstine on staff, making them a potential candidate to take a look, though whether they would remains unclear.
The magazine has struggled mightily in recent years and operated at a loss of more than $20 million last year, according to one estimate.
This year, things are even worse: Its ad pages are down 37 percent through the June 22 issue to 575.4 pages. A decade ago, the mag raked in a profit of more than $100 million.
The McGraw family led by Terry McGraw, which still controls the 122-year-old publicly traded company, has long had a special affec tion for the magazine — even though McGraw- Hill long ago shifted away from the magazine business in favor of publishing education books, running consumer satisfaction research firm J.D. Power & Co. and owning credit- rating agency giant Standard & Poor’s.
Officially, all McGraw- Hill said was, “We don’t comment on rumors.” keith.kelly@nypost.com