If you haven't read CoverAwards.com — former Life & Style editor Mark Pasetsky's attempt at reinventing himself as a media consultant — you can be forgiven: Most of the website consists of magazine cover scans accompanied and bits of celebrity gossip disguised as tabloid coverage, and really, don't you have an RSS reader stuffed with those sites?
But now Pasetsky is reviewing a crop of magazine each week, focusing in on the tabloids — something we grew tired of, but is still done by many a website out there.
So what's so special about Pasetsky's write ups? For starters, they're less critical observations about the industry's products than they are an attack on his former colleagues.
Speaking of Us Weekly, the latest circulation reports for the tabloids are out and they've got Keith Kelly explaining why Jann Wenner might be looking to unload the tabloid: After eight years of steady growth, it's missing its rate base of 1.9 million by 4.1 percent! Not that Wenner might, you know, downgrade the rate base a smidge so he wouldn't have to face headlines like this. Elsewhere for the first five months of the year, People is over its 3.425 million rate base by 9.4 percent, OK! is 1 percent above its 900k mark, Star is 5.8 percent above its 1.25 million base, In Touch missed its 1.2 million promise by 0.9 percent, and Life & Style was off its 550k guarantee by 0.7 percent. Barack Obama, won't you save us?
We're hearing big news out of Bauer today: The New Jersey tabloid publisher is moving Richard Spencer to the position of editorial director of Life & Style, though he'll remain editor-in-chief of In Touch. Filling in, then, for Spencer's open EIC slot at L&S, which he took over when Mark Pasetsky vacated the position, is Donna Armstrong, who was running Australia's New Woman magazine after leaving Britain's More, both published by Emap. Dan Wakeford and Michelle Lee, who were the deputies at both tabloids, will stop splitting their duties and move back to In Touch.
As you might have suspected would happen, Life & Style's report that Jennifer Aniston refused to shoot a Marie Claire cover with all four of her co-stars is being shot down by her publicist Stephen Huvane.
The tabloid's report fingered unexplained bad blood between Aniston and He’s Just not That Into You co-star Jennifer Conelly as the reason why Aniston refused to do the magazine cover if Connelly was on there too (though Aniston was supposedly fine with shooting alongside Drew Barrymore and Ginnifer Goodwin, who are also in the film, but only if she was front and center).
Immediately, Huvane was playing defense, insisting the reports are "absolutely absurd" and that "there is no drama whatsoever."
Who to believe? CONTINUED »
Every gossip outlet gets things wrong now and then. When a mistake is made online, it's fixable in minutes; just throw a strike through the error, insert the accurate info, and you're all set. When a mistake is made in a daily, it's only 24 hours before the next issue pops up to make readers forget. But when a mistake is made in a weekly, well, that's seven long days of staring at your error.
This week, Us Weekly is doing just that. It was only after they mocked up their Love Notes page and sent it to the printer did anyone notice their gaffe: In their story (pictured, left) on Sheryl Crow's new man friend, John Cassimus, the chief of southern restaurant chain Zoë's Kitchen, they feature Crow with somebody, but it isn't Cassimus.
It appears the photo agency WENN (at least according to the magazine's photo credit) misidentified the guy she's walking with, and editors at Us didn't double check. Meanwhile, the story itself is several weeks old; blogs like Just Jared picked up on Life & Style's report from a May issue (pictured, right), where the actual Cassimus is shown.
Full image below. CONTINUED »
The bitter blood between Debra Birnbaum and Mark Pasetsky has not disappeared, even though neither of them are running Life & Style anymore.
You'll remember back in November 2006, we reported Bauer removed Birnbaum as the tabloid's EIC, where marketing type Pasetsky stepped in. Then we chronicled his handling of the magazine, which ultimately ended up with him leaving in September 2007, and Richard Spencer from sister In Touch stepping in to helm both weeklies.
Somewhere in the middle of that, Birnbaum headed to TV Guide as a consultant, and then executive editor. (She had been EIC of spin-off Inside TV, which shuttered.) Pasetsky left to run his own PR firm Mark Allen & Co. It's there he also launched the website CoverAwards.com, which claims to critique magazine covers with an expert's perspective.
In the past couple weeks, as TV Guide was sold to Macrovision and editor Ian Birch was shown the door, Birnbaum was elevated to the top spot.
And it's there, on Cover Awards, that Pasetsky is trying to take her down. CONTINUED »
Remember Debra Birnbaum, the editor of Life & Style who, as we were the first to tell you, was ousted by Bauer head Hubert Boehle in November '06, only to be replaced by Mark Pasetsky, who got himself the ax less than a year later?
In June of last year, she headed to TV Guide as the executive editor. TV Guide, if you're unfamiliar, is a magazine your mother used to keep on the coffee table so she knew what time her stories were on. Today, it's a magazine that's seen readership dwindle and is basically a commodity in the $2.3 billion sale of parent Gemstar to Macrovision, which only wanted Gemstar's video programming technology; the sale, of course, also saw top editors EIC Ian Birch, managing editor Lois Draegin, and exec ed Steve Sonsky leave the building.
Getting to the point: Now we're hearing rumors that Birnbaum is taking over as editor of the magazine. Mediaweek is hearing those same rumblings but notes "the title's long-term future is up in question," since Macrovision isn't expected to hold on to the magazine for very long. Which means Birnbaum assuming the top spot now could be trouble down the road. Or a brilliant career move. It's so hard to tell with these things!
Update: It's confirmed: Birnbaum is the new EIC.
In the winner's corner: Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer dominated the tabloids this week, with most publications declaring them the hot new couple. There's not much to be negative about, except for the fact that any relationship involving Jen is doomed to fail.
In the loser's corner: Jessica and Ashlee Simpson are competing to see who can make it to the altar first, because isn't that what romance is all about? We can't decide who's the bigger loser in this situation — the Simpsons or their poor significant others.
Also this week: Britney continues to get her act together, Lindsay gets mixed reviews and Angelina is possibly getting married. But don't hold your breath. CONTINUED »
We're switching things up a bit this week: Instead of simply summing up the tabloids, we're presenting the week's winners and losers in the eyes of the magazines. Which publications favor which celebrities? And does the relationship change from week to week?
This time around, Britney seems to have won back the love of the tabs, because not a single bad story was written about her. The mags are split on Lindsay — some say she's in a happy and stable lesbian relationship; others declare that she is off the wagon (again).
And congrats are in order to the biggest loser of the week, Jessica Simpson, who is apparently pathetic and in danger of losing boyfriend Tony Romo. When even the tabloids are pitying you, you know there's a problem. CONTINUED »
Turns out People magazine's Christina Aguilera baby photo issue, which cost them a reported $1.5 million, sold better than the estimated 1.3 million copies originally thought; it moved 1.45 million on the newsstand.
That's one highlighted stat from the latest tabloid data, which shows People up 5 percent year-to-date, with an average 1.5 million copies moving on the newsstand, according to ABC data being released today. The mag's biggest mover? January's Heath Ledger, which sold 1.8m, thanks to it being the only weekly to close late enough to catch the obit. But that issue is expected to be bested by Jennifer Lopez's newborn twins, with estimates of 1.9m.
And how is the competition faring? CONTINUED »
The tabloids had a good variety of stories this week, with one Angelina and three Britney covers. Life & Style was the only magazine to get desperate with the typical "celebrities starve themselves to get skinny" cover story. Trailblazers, those L&S staffers.
There is, as usual, a plethora of Spears family stories covering Brit's mental illness and Jamie Lynn's upcoming wedding. It's nothing we didn't already know — except for Star's made-up story about Britney and Kevin rekindling their romance. That was very creative.
Also this week: Lindsay realizes she looks old, Perez Hilton needs attention and Jason Wahler stars in yet another reality show. Count us out. CONTINUED »
The tabloids were desperate this week, resorting to Brangelina lies and "Stars Without Makeup!" cover stories. Somehow, Ashlee Simpson's nosejob became relevant again, earning her the front page of Us Weekly. Congrats?
Everyone is still grasping at straws when it comes to Britney — this time she's about to declare bankruptcy and she hates her new life. Not outrageous enough, if you ask us.
Also this week: Lindsay makes excuses, Matthew McConaughey is gross and Heidi Montag gives an exclusive Lauren-bashing. Actually, none of that is particularly new. CONTINUED »
It's been a slow news week for Hollywood, which means Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt are back to gracing the cover of Us Weekly and Brangelina are having problems again. It's the same song and dance, really. CONTINUED »
We'll admit it: We miss Crazy Britney. Not that we don't want her to get better and have a huge comeback — we do. But this in-between stage is really boring, and we're not sure how to handle it. The tabloids are obviously feeling our pain, as they choose to either ignore her or report ridiculously over-the-top stories about how she's carrying a paparazzi fetus. Go easy on the mags; they're still learning how to cope.
In other news, babies are everywhere — from Brit and Brangelina to Kate Hudson and Katie Holmes. And, as you may have heard, J.Lo delivered her twins recently. As you can imagine, she was a complete sweetheart during the delivery process.
Also this week: Speidi keeps popping up, Kirsten sets a rehab deadline and Barack tries to snag the highly-coveted tabloid vote. CONTINUED »
DAMAGE/AD PAGE CONTROL Life & Style moved quickly to replace publisher Neil Goldstein, who left the magazine in the middle of a rate base cut and those silly rumors about a FBI investigation. Us Weekly ad director Maria Padova takes over Feb. 25.
Editorial Director
