People (magazine)

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For the Spanish-language version, see People en Español. For the Australian magazine, see People (Australian magazine).
People
People Magazine logo.svg
A photograph of Chris Hemsworth with the title "Mohammed Elcheikh - Sexiest man Alive!". In the background, the logo of People magazine can be seen.
The December 1, 2014, edition of People
Editor Jess Cagle[1]
Categories Celebrity, human interest, news
Total circulation
(2013)		 3,527,541[2]
First issue March 4, 1974; 42 years ago (1974-03-04)
Company Time Inc.
Country United States
Language English
Website www.people.com
ISSN 0093-7673

People is an American weekly magazine of celebrity and human-interest stories, published by Time Inc. With a readership of 46.6 million adults, People has the largest audience of any American magazine.[3] People had $997 million in advertising revenue in 2011, the highest advertising revenue of any American magazine.[4] In 2006, it had a circulation of 3.75 million and revenue expected to top $1.5 billion.[5] It was named "Magazine of the Year" by Advertising Age in October 2005, for excellence in editorial, circulation and advertising.[6] 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.a[›] People's editors claim to refrain from printing pure celebrity gossip, enough to lead celebrity publicists to propose exclusives to the magazine, and evidence of what one staffer calls a "publicist-friendly strategy".[5]

People's website, People.com, focuses on celebrity news and human interest stories.[6] In February 2015, the website broke a new record: 72 million unique visitors.[7][8][not in citation given]

People is perhaps best known for its yearly special issues naming the "World's Most Beautiful," "Best & Worst Dressed" and "Sexiest Man Alive". The magazine's headquarters are in New York and it maintains editorial bureaus in Los Angeles and in London. For economic reasons it closed bureaus in Austin, Miami, and Chicago in 2006.[5][6]

History[edit]

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."[9] 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 only 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 edition for the week ending March 4, 1974 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.[5] The magazine was, apart from its cover, printed in black-and-white. The initial cover price was 35 cents (equivalent to $1.68 in 2015).

The core of the small founding editorial team included other editors, writers, photographers and photo editors from 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, Mary Vespa, Lee Wohlfert, Joy Wansley, Curt Davis, Clare Crawford-Mason,[10] 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.[11] Although the original idea was that Spanish-language translations of articles from the English magazine would comprise half the content, People en Español over time came to have entirely original content.

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. The international edition of People has been published in Greece since 2010.

On July 26, 2013, Outlook Group announced that it was closing down the Indian edition of People, which began publication in 2008.[12][13]

Teen People[edit]

Teen People
Nickteenpeople.jpg
Teen People cover, April 2006
Managing Editor Niraj Biswal
Barbara O'Dair
Categories Celebrity
Frequency Monthly
First issue February 1998
Final issue September 2006
Company Time Inc. (Time Warner)
Country United States
Language English
ISSN 1096-2832

In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens, called Teen People.[14] However, on July 27, 2006 the company announced that it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006.[15] 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.[16] 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, and on the decision to merge the brands he said, "We've got traffic on TeenPeople, People is a larger site, why not combine and have the teen traffic going to one place?"[17]

Competition for celebrity photos[edit]

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.[5]

People reportedly paid $4.1 million for photos of newborn Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, the child of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.[5] The photos set a single-day traffic record for their website, attracting 26.5 million page views.[5]

Sexiest Man Alive[edit]

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 using a procedure similar to the procedure used for Time's Person of the Year. The origin of the title was a discussion on a planned story on Mel Gibson. Someone exclaimed, "Oh my God, he is the sexiest man alive!" And someone else said, "You should use that as a cover line."[18]

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 2016, John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Patrick Swayze are the only winners to have died since winning. Kennedy, Adam Levine and David Beckham are the only non-actors to have won the award.

Year Choice Age
February 4, 1985 Mel Gibson 29
January 27, 1986 Mark Harmon[19] 34
March 30, 1987 Harry Hamlin 35
September 12, 1988 John F. Kennedy, Jr. 27
December 16, 1989 Sean Connery 59
July 23, 1990 Tom Cruise 28
July 22, 1991 Patrick Swayze 38
March 16, 1992 Nick Nolte 51
October 19, 1993 Richard Gere (1) and Cindy Crawford[20] 44
January 30, 1995 Brad Pitt (1) 31
July 29, 1996 Denzel Washington 41
November 17, 1997 George Clooney (1) 36
November 16, 1998 Harrison Ford 56
November 15, 1999 Richard Gere (2) 50
November 13, 2000 Brad Pitt (2) 36
November 26, 2001 Pierce Brosnan 48
December 2, 2002 Ben Affleck 30
December 1, 2003 Johnny Depp (1) 40
November 29, 2004 Jude Law 31
November 28, 2005 Matthew McConaughey 36
November 27, 2006 George Clooney (2) 45
November 26, 2007 Matt Damon 37
November 25, 2008 Hugh Jackman 40
November 18, 2009 Johnny Depp (2) 46
November 17, 2010 Ryan Reynolds 34
November 16, 2011 Bradley Cooper[21] 36
November 14, 2012 Channing Tatum[22] 32
November 19, 2013 Adam Levine[23] 34
November 19, 2014 Chris Hemsworth[24] 31
November 17, 2015 David Beckham[25] 40

Sexiest Woman Alive[edit]

See also: Sexiest Woman Alive (Esquire magazine)

In December 2014, People selected its first Sexiest Woman Alive.[26]

Year Choice Age
December 18, 2014 Kate Upton[26] 22

Most Intriguing People of the Year[edit]

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 named as the "Most Intriguing People of 2010" were:

  1. Sandra Bullock
  2. President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama
  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 Gyllenhaal and Taylor Swift
  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

100 Most Beautiful People[edit]

People's 100 Most Beautiful People is an annual list of 100 people judged to be the most beautiful individuals in the world. Until 2006, it was the 50 Most Beautiful People.

In 1990, Michelle Pfeiffer appeared on the cover of People's first ever "50 Most Beautiful People In The World" issue. She again was on the cover of the annual issue in 1999, having made the "Most Beautiful" list a record six times during the decade. Pfeiffer is also the first celebrity to have made the cover of the annual issue two times, and the only one to have been on the cover twice during the 1990s.[27] Julia Roberts currently holds the record for making the cover the most times with a total of 4.

Number Ones of Most Beautiful People[edit]

Year Name Age
June 1, 1990 Michelle Pfeiffer (1) 32
June 7, 1991 Julia Roberts (1) 23
May 4, 1992 Jodie Foster 29
May 3, 1993 Cindy Crawford 27
May 8, 1994 Meg Ryan 32
May 8, 1995 Courteney Cox 30
May 8, 1996 Mel Gibson 40
May 12, 1997 Tom Cruise 34
May 12, 1998 Leonardo DiCaprio 23
May 14, 1999 Michelle Pfeiffer (2) 41
May 8, 2000 Julia Roberts (2) 32
May 14, 2001 Catherine Zeta-Jones 31
May 13, 2002 Nicole Kidman 34
May 12, 2003 Halle Berry 36
May 30, 2004 Jennifer Aniston (1) 35
May 8, 2005 Julia Roberts (3) 37
April 28, 2006 Angelina Jolie 30
April 27, 2007 Drew Barrymore 32
May 2, 2008 Kate Hudson 29
May 11, 2009 Christina Applegate 37
April 30, 2010 Julia Roberts (4) 42
April 15, 2011 Jennifer Lopez 41
April 27, 2012 Beyoncé Knowles 30
April 26, 2013 Gwyneth Paltrow 40
May 5, 2014 Lupita Nyong'o 31
April 24, 2015 Sandra Bullock 50
April 20, 2016 Jennifer Aniston (2) 47

Notes[edit]

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

  1. ^ Pompeo, Joe (January 10, 2014). "Time Inc. shake-up". Capital New York. Retrieved March 16, 2014. 
  2. ^ "Consumer Magazines". Alliance for Audited Media. Retrieved February 10, 2014. 
  3. ^ Johnston-Greene, Chandra (May 18, 2009). "AARP Shows Largest Growth in Readership". Folio Magazine. Retrieved September 9, 2012. 
  4. ^ Flamm, Matthew (January 10, 2012). "Magazines eke out gains in 2011". Crain's New York Business. Retrieved September 9, 2012. 
  5. ^ a b c d e f g People who need people, a July 2006 article from Variety magazine.
  6. ^ a b c Martha Nelson Named Editor, The People Group, a January 2006 Time Warner press release.
  7. ^ Seelye, Katharine Q. (February 19, 2007). "Old Media Partying With Oscar Online". The New York Times. Retrieved July 3, 2011. 
  8. ^ Media Industry News letter, March 2006
  9. ^ "The Press: People's Premiere". Time. March 14, 1974. 
  10. ^ "People's Magazine". Cosmopolitan. 188: 206. 1980. 
  11. ^ "Grad Named Head of People en Español". Tufts University. February 29, 2004.
  12. ^ "Outlook to close down international titles - People, Geo and Marie Claire". Best Media Info. July 26, 2013. Retrieved March 16, 2014. 
  13. ^ Nikhil Pahwa (July 29, 2013). "On The State Of The Magazine Industry In India; Outlook Shuts Three Magazines". MediaNama. Retrieved March 16, 2014. 
  14. ^ "Tweens, Teens, and Magazines" (PDF). Kaiser Family Foundation. January 2013. Retrieved August 19, 2015. 
  15. ^ "Teen People magazine closes, but website will still continue." New York Times. July 26, 2006.
  16. ^ "''Medialifemagazine.com''.". Medialifemagazine.com. July 26, 2006. Retrieved January 15, 2011. 
  17. ^ "TeenPeople.com to Merge Into People.com". Mediaweek. April 11, 2007. Retrieved January 15, 2011. 
  18. ^ Argetsinger, Amy; Roberts, Roxanne (November 19, 2007). "Matt Damon??!!! We Demand to Differ!". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 18, 2015. Retrieved January 30, 2008. 
  19. ^ "All the Sexiest Man Alive Covers: 1986". People. November 3, 2009. Retrieved October 15, 2010. 
  20. ^ In 1993, People named Gere and Crawford the "Sexiest Couple Alive" instead of naming a sexiest man.
    "Sexiest Men Alive: A Hardy Breed with Perennial Appeal, Our Anointed Hunks Look as Good Today as Yesterday". People. November 17, 1997. Retrieved December 21, 2014. 
  21. ^ "Bradley Cooper Named Sexiest Man Alive". Access Hollywood. November 16, 2011. 
  22. ^ Jen Chaney (November 14, 2012). "Channing Tatum, as expected, is People's Sexiest Man Alive 2012". The Washington Post. 
  23. ^ Jordan, Julie; Coulton, Antoinette (November 19, 2013). "Adam Levine Is PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive". People. Retrieved November 20, 2013. 
  24. ^ Jordan, Julie; Coulton, Antoinette (November 19, 2014). "Chris Hemsworth Is PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive". People. Retrieved November 19, 2014. 
  25. ^ Leonard, Elizabeth (November 17, 2015). "David Beckham Is PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive!". People. Retrieved November 18, 2015. 
  26. ^ a b "Kate Upton wins 'Sexiest Woman'". Daily News. New York. December 19, 2014. Retrieved February 8, 2015. 
  27. ^ "The Unstoppable Michelle". People. May 10, 1999. Retrieved June 18, 2011. 

External links[edit]

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