Keith J. Kelly

Keith J. Kelly

Media

Did Wintour botch social media push for Kimye cover?

Sources wonder if Anna Wintour mishandled Vogue magazine’s social media campaign surrounding Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s controversial cover appearance in the April issue.

The digital traffic was explosive, but the Kimye cover did not translate into the newsstand bonanza that some were predicting for the all-important print product, which generates the bulk of Vogue profits.

Some early sources were predicting newsstand sales of 400,000 to 500,000, but MagNet Data, which tracks wholesalers’ scan data from 98 percent of the market, said it expected the real number will be around 250,000.

Last year in the first half, Vogue was selling 269,000 on newsstands, with another 900,000 going to subscribers. While not a terrible shortfall on the single-copy average compared to a year ago, it certainly fell short of expectations.

The cover image had been kept under wraps and was first released on Instagram by Kardashian on March 20.

Wholesalers, publicists and many others had been asked to abide by a strict nondisclosure agreement before the cover hit.

But as publicity and the expected backlash to the decision to grace the cover with Kardashian and West — who some felt were unworthy — began, Vogue had no covers on newsstands for nearly a week before subscribers and vendors on the East Coast and West Coast began receiving their first issues.

“They probably lost about 100,000 in sales by not being out there,” speculated one publishing executive.

It did, however, have one benefit. Vogue.com traffic spiked to its highest level in 2¹/₂ years in March, said one source. Vogue declined to release traffic or newsstand figures.

A spokeswoman for Kardashian declined to comment.