Jump to content

People (magazine)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 166.147.123.22 (talk) at 01:28, 19 February 2012. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For the Australian magazine, see People (Australian magazine).
People Weekly
File:People cover chace .jpg
EditorMichael Laurenza
CategoriesCelebrity, human interest, news
Total circulation
(2011)		3,556,753[1]
First issueMarch 4, 1974
CompanyTime Inc. (Time Warner) Vice President Sylvia Marquez
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Websitewww.people.com
ISSN0093-7673
Logo

People (originally called People Weekly) is a weekly American magazine of celebrity and human-interest stories, published by Time Inc. As of 2006, it has a circulation of 3.75 million and revenue expected to top $1.5 billion.[2] It was named "Magazine of the Year" by Advertising Age in October 2005, for excellence in editorial, circulation and advertising.[3] People ranked #6 on Advertising Age's annual "A-list" and #3 on Adweek's "Brand Blazers" list in October 2006.

The magazine runs a roughly 50/50 mix of celebrity and human-interest articles. People's editors claim to refrain from printing pure celebrity gossip, enough so to lead celebrity publicists to propose exclusives to the magazine, evidence of what one staffer calls a "publicist-friendly strategy".[2]

People's website, People.com, focuses exclusively on celebrity news.[3] In February 2007, the website drew 39.6 million page views "within a day" of the Golden Globes. However "the mother ship of Oscar coverage" broke a site record with 51.7 million page views on the day after the Oscars, beating the previous record set just a month before from the Golden Globes.[4][5][failed verification]

People is perhaps best known for its yearly special issues naming "Most Beautiful People", "The Best Dressed", and "The Sexiest Man Alive".

The magazine maintains a single editorial bureau in Los Angeles. Due to economic reasons it has recently closed bureaus in New York City, Austin, Miami, Chicago, and London.[2][3]

History

The concept for People has been attributed to Andrew Heiskell, Time, Inc.’s chief executive officer at the time and the former publisher of the weekly LIFE Magazine. The founding managing editor of People was Richard B. (Dick) Stolley, a former assistant managing editor at LIFE and the journalist who acquired the Zapruder tapes of the John F. Kennedy assassination for Time, Inc. in 1963. People’s first publisher was Richard J. (Dick) Durrell, another Time, Inc. veteran.

Stolley, characterized the magazine as "getting back to the people who are causing the news and who are caught up in it, or deserve to be in it. Our focus is on people, not issues."[6] Stolley’s almost religious determination to keep the magazine people-focused contributed significantly to its rapid early success. It is said that although Time, Inc. pumped an estimated $40 million into the venture, the magazine broke even 18 months after its debut in March 1974. Initially, the magazine was sold primarily on newsstands and in supermarkets. To get the magazine out each week, founding staff members regularly slept on the floor of their offices two or three nights each week and severely limited all non-essential outside engagements. The premiere March 4, 1974 edition featured actress Mia Farrow, then starring in the movie The Great Gatsby, on the cover. That issue also featured stories on Gloria Vanderbilt, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and the wives of U.S. Vietnam veterans who were Missing In Action.[2] The magazine was, apart from its cover, printed in black-and-white. The initial cover price was 35 cents.

The core of the small founding editorial team included other editors, writers, photographers and photo editors from the weekly Life Magazine, which had ceased publication just 13 months earlier. This group included managing editor Stolley, senior editors Hal Wingo (father of ESPN anchor Trey Wingo), Sam Angeloff (the founding managing editor of Us Magazine), and Robert Emmett Ginna ( later a producer of films); writers James Watters (a theater reviewer) and Ronald B. Scott (later a biographer of Presidential candidate Mitt Romney); former Time senior editor Richard Burgheim (later the founder of Time’s ill- fated cable television magazine View); Chief of Photography, a LIFE photographer John Loengard to be succeeded by John Dominus, a noteworthy LIFE staff photographer; and design artist Bernard Waber, author and illustrator of the “Lyle The Crocodile” book series for children. Many of the noteworthy LIFE photographers contributed to the magazine as well including legends Alfred Eisenstaedt and Gjon Mili and rising stars Co Rentmeester, David Burnett and Bill Eppridge. Other members of the first editorial staff included editors and writers: Ross Drake, Ralph Novak, Bina Bernard, James Jerome, Sally Moore, Lee Wohlfert, Joy Wansley, Curt Davis, and Jed Horne, later an editor of the Times-Picayune in New Orleans.

In 1996 Time, Inc. launched a Spanish-language magazine entitled People en Español. The company has said that the new publication emerged after a 1995 issue of the original magazine was distributed with two distinct covers, one featuring the slain Tejano singer Selena and the other featuring the hit television series Friends; the Selena cover sold out while the other did not.[7] Though the original idea was that Spanish-language translations of articles from the English magazine would comprise half the content of People en Español over time came to have entirely original content.[8]

In 2002, People introduced People Stylewatch, a title focusing on celebrity style, fashion, and beauty- a newsstand extension of its Stylewatch column. Due to its success, the frequency of People Stylewatch was increased to 10 times per year in 2007.

In Australia, the localized version of People is titled Who because of a pre-existing lad's mag published under the title People.

Teen People

Teen People
File:Nickteenpeople.jpg
Teen People April 2006
Managing EditorChristina Ferrari
Barbara O'Dair
CategoriesCelebrity
FrequencyMonthly
First issue1998
Final issueSeptember, 2006
CompanyTime Inc. (Time Warner)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Website[9]

In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006.[10] Subscribers to this magazine received Entertainment Weekly for the rest of their issues in exchange. There were numerous reasons cited for the publication shutdown, including a downfall in ad pages, competition from both other teen-oriented magazines and the internet along with a decrease in circulation numbers.[11] Teenpeople.com was merged into People.com in April 2007. People.com will "carry teen-focused stories that are branded as TeenPeople.com", Mark Golin the editor of People.com explained, with the decision to merge the brands, "We've got traffic on TeenPeople, People is a larger site, why not combine and have the teen traffic going to one place?"[12]

Competition for celebrity photos

In a July 2006 Variety article, Janice Min, Us Weekly editor-in-chief, blamed People for the increase in cost to publishers of celebrity photos:

"They are among the largest spenders of celebrity photos in the industry....One of the first things they ever did, that led to the jacking up of photo prices, was to pay $75,000 to buy pictures of Jennifer Lopez reading Us magazine, so Us Weekly couldn't buy them.
"That was the watershed moment that kicked off high photo prices in my mind. I had never seen anything like it. But they saw a competitor come along, and responded. It was a business move, and probably a smart one."[2] People reportedly paid $4.1 million for newborn photos of Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, the child of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.[2] The photos set a single-day traffic record for their website, attracting 26.5 million page views.[2]

Sexiest Man Alive

The annual feature the "Sexiest Man Alive" is billed as a benchmark of male attractiveness and typically includes only famous people and celebrities. It is determined in a similar procedure to Time's Person of the Year. The origin of the title was a discussion on a planned story on Mel Gibson. A female editor exclaimed, "Oh my God, he is the sexiest man alive!" And someone else said, "You should use that as a cover line."[13]

For the first decade or so, the feature appeared at uneven intervals. Originally awarded in the wintertime, it shifted around the calendar, resulting in gaps as short as seven months and as long as a year and a half (with no selection at all during 1994). Since 1997, the dates have settled between mid-November and early December.

Dates of magazine issues, winners, ages of winners at the time of selection, and pertinent comments are listed below.

As of 2011, John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Patrick Swayze are the only winners to have died since winning.

Year Choice Age Notes
1985-02-04 Mel Gibson   29 First person chosen and then an Australian citizen.
1986-01-27 Mark Harmon[14]   34
1987-03-30 Harry Hamlin   35
1988-09-12 John F. Kennedy, Jr.   27 Longest gap between selections: 18 months. Was the youngest winner. Only non-actor to win. First member to have since died (1999).
1989-12-16 Sean Connery   59 Oldest person to win the title. First winner to have portrayed James Bond. First Scottish winner.
1990-07-23 Tom Cruise   28
1991-07-22 Patrick Swayze   38 Second member to have since died (2009).
1992-03-16 Nick Nolte   51
1993-10-19 Richard Gere
Cindy Crawford 		  44
  27 		People took a one-year hiatus from Sexiest Man and instead awarded Sexiest Couple.
1995-01-30 Brad Pitt   31 First of two awards.
1996-07-29 Denzel Washington   41 First African American winner.
1997-11-17 George Clooney   36 First of two awards.
1998-11-16 Harrison Ford   56
1999-11-15 Richard Gere   50 First two-time winner.
2000-11-13 Brad Pitt   36 First two-time solo winner.
2001-11-26 Pierce Brosnan   48 Second winner to have portrayed James Bond. First Irish winner.
2002-12-02 Ben Affleck   30
2003-12-01 Johnny Depp   40 First of two awards.
2004-11-29 Jude Law   31 First English winner
2005-11-28 Matthew McConaughey   36
2006-11-27 George Clooney   45 Second win.
2007-11-26 Matt Damon   37
2008-11-25 Hugh Jackman   40 Second Australian winner.
2009-11-18 Johnny Depp   46 Second win.
2010-11-17 Ryan Reynolds   34 First Canadian winner.
2011-11-16 Bradley Cooper[15]   36
2012-02-18 Sung To   34 First Chinese winner.

Most Intriguing People of the Year

At the end of each year People Magazine famously selects 25 news-making individuals or couples who have received a lot of media attention over the past 12 months and showcases them in a special year-end issue, the '25 Most Intriguing People of the Year'. This series of full page features and half page featurettes includes world leaders and political activists, famous actors and entertainers, elite athletes, prominent business people, accomplished scientists and occasionally members of the public whose stories have made an unusual impact in news or tabloid media.

For example, the news-makers People Magazine named as the 'Most Intriguing People of 2010' were:

  1. Sandra Bullock and close friend
  2. President Barack Obama and his wife
  3. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
  4. Michael Douglas
  5. Elizabeth Smart
  6. Prince William and Catherine Middleton
  7. Elin Nordegren
  8. Natalie Portman
  9. Nicki Minaj
  10. Sarah Palin
  11. LeBron James
  12. Bret Michaels
  13. Julian Assange
  14. The Chilean Miners
  15. Ricky Martin
  16. Kim Kardashian
  17. Mark Zuckerberg
  18. Heidi Montag
  19. Jake and Taylor
  20. Ryan Reynolds
  21. Will Smith's kids (Jaden and Willow)
  22. Christina Aguilera
  23. Ali Fedotowsky and Roberto Martinez
  24. James Franco
  25. Conan O’Brien

Website

People.com is the official online version of People Magazine. As of April 2011, People.com was ranked as the third most popular Entertainment News property in the United States by comScore Media Metrix.

comScore US Rank Entertainment News Web Properties March 2011 Readers
1 OMG! by Yahoo 23.7 million
2 TMZ 18.5 million
3 People Magazine 13.5 million
4 BuzzMedia Entertainment 12.8 million
5 CNN Entertainment 10.1 million
6 Zimbio 8.9 million
7 Entertainment Weekly 8.2 million
8 E! Online 7.5 million
9 GossipCenter Network 7.1 million
10 Mail Online 6.5 million

Notes

^ a: The ratio, according to Variety, is 53% to 47%.

  1. ^ "eCirc for Consumer Magazines". Audit Bureau of Circulations. June 30, 2011. Retrieved December 1, 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g People who need people, a July 2006 article from Variety magazine.
  3. ^ a b c Martha Nelson Named Editor, The People Group, a January 2006 Time Warner press release.
  4. ^ Seelye, Katharine Q. (19 February 2007). "Old Media Partying With Oscar Online". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
  5. ^ <Media Industry News letter, March 2006>
  6. ^ "The Press: PEOPLE'S PREMIERE". Time. 1974-03-04.
  7. ^ "Grad Named Head of People en Español." tufts.edu. February 29, 2004.
  8. ^ "People En Espanol: Spanish Magazine". Articlecat.com. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  9. ^ "The #1 Celebrity Site for breaking news, celebrity pictures and star style". People.com. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
  10. ^ "Teen People magazine closes, but website will still continue." New York Times. July 26, 2006.
  11. ^ "''Medialifemagazine.com''". Medialifemagazine.com. Jul 26, 2006. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  12. ^ "TeenPeople.com to Merge Into People.com". Mediaweek.com. April 11, 2007. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  13. ^ Argetsinger, Amy; Roberts, Roxanne. "Matt Damon??!!! We Demand to Differ!" The Washington Post. November 19, 2007. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
  14. ^ Post to: (2009-11-03). "All the Sexiest Man Alive Covers - 1986 - Sexiest Man Alive, Sexiest Man Alive". People.com. Retrieved 2010-10-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  15. ^ Bradley Cooper Named Sexiest Man Alive, Access Hollywood, November 16, 2011

Template:50 largest US magazines

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=People_(magazine)&oldid=477637942"