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 »
As the drama of the FBI investigation into Bauer's photo department grows, so, too, do the specifics of its scope.
Original reports of a probe into In Touch suggested the feds were interested in a payola scheme involving a LA editor getting a cut from a paparazzi agency for each of its photos he helped land on the cover. Except as our sources explained, the West Coast office has no role in choosing covers; that all happens with Richard Spencer's team in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
So what is the FBI really interested in? CONTINUED »
As if the rate base headaches at Bauer couldn't get worse, word arrives that the New Jersey tabloid outpost has its phone taps by the feds as part of a payola investigation.
The FBI is said to be investigating claims that editors, or one in particular, are being paid by photo agencies to choose their pics to appear on the cover. (Sometimes it works in different ways.)
Cold hard cash dumped into their pockets, in exchange for editorial play, won't exactly sound alarms in the industry (c'mon), or in a courtroom. But if said editor doesn't put that income down on his tax return? Eek! And that's the claim being intimated.
Former In Touch staffers in Los Angeles are being called in by federal agents for questioning. But one source inside the company claims to have zero knowledge of the investigation, or even the allegations. "It's bullshit."
Some folks are pointing fingers at Martin Gould, the former West Coast news director who departed for a better payday at Star. But others counter it couldn't be Gould, or anyone based on the West Coast, since the LA bureau doesn't choose cover photos. That's left to Richard Spencer's team on the East Coast.
UPDATE: Bauer just issued this statement to us: "This whole story sounds ludicrous. Our West Coast bureau do not assign photo agencies - this goes through our photo desk. In Touch has not been contacted by the FBI."
After newsstand owners pressured Bauer to raise the cover prices of In Touch and Life & Style – which, based on the terms these checkout aisle pocket owners have with publishers, means they'll see a larger share of each sale – the tabloids faced backlash from readers in the form of fewer sales. Which means Richard Spencer's two tabloids are forced to cut their rate bases.
In Touch, though its total circ was 1,271,354 in the second half of 2007, hit its 1.2 million rate base, but is lowering its number guaranteed to advertisers to 1 million, down 17 percent.
Life & Style, which had circ of 681,723, missed its 700,000 rate base. It, too, is lowering its guarantee, down to 550,000, or 21 percent.
To be fair, the celeb weekly category, overall, has been slipping, thanks to heavy saturation and those damn gossip blogs. And Bauer has repeatedly inched up the rate bases of both tabloids since they launched; in many instances, In Touch beat veteran heavyweight competitors at the newsstand.
Us Weekly's circ, meanwhile, is up 2.7 percent to 1,005,081; total paid circ is up 10 percent to 1,928,852. OK! is up 24 percent, to 935,378. People will report a fall of 3.5 percent, to 3.7 million, while newsstand dropped 6 percent to 1.42 million. Star is expected to show a 3 or 4 percent dip in newsstand sales, to 713,000.
Meanwhile, even with the rate base cut, Bauer insists its now making more money, with the cover price hikes, than before. So they shouldn't be able to blame budget cuts, then, when explaining why this week's cover of Life & Style (above right) features Bragenlina's baby Shiloh in a blue sweater … that's actually an old photo of her, which appeared on Life & Style last month (above left), but flipped and color-swapped.
Americans walking through the check-out aisle do, in fact, care how much they pay to read exclamation points attached to photos of Britney Spears on the covers of tabloids. Which is why, when Bauer upped by $1 the price of In Touch and Life & Style under pressure from wholesalers (who get a cut of the sale), newsstand sales dropped by a third. But that was two months ago, and customers have, at least in part, been drawn back to the incessant Brangelina coverage.
But with rate hikes planned across the celeb weekly board, how will the others fare? CONTINUED »
Because the tabs missed Heath Ledger's death last week, this week we are treated to multiple angles of the actor's life: He was an awful person! He was a great person! He was addicted to drugs! He tried to get help! TMZ wore us out with this last week. Let's move on.
The biggest news, of course, is Angelina's pregnancy. You know what this means: Expect a bombardment of Brangelina covers for the next nine months.
In other news, Lynne Spears tries to act like a mother, Heidi claims to be religious and Miley Cyrus is the next Britney. God help us all. CONTINUED »
You're waking up to rampant grabs for exclusive news that Angelina Jolie is once again pregnant … with twins! Star magazine's senior exec editor Martin Gould sent out a late-night email claiming its their exclusive and "PLEASE ENSURE YOU CREDIT STAR AND LINK TO THE STARMAGAZINE.COM" (o-kay!).
Photo agency Bauer Griffin is hyping its own website scoop: "Sources have told only Bauer Griffin Online that not only is the pregnancy rumor true, and it’s twins, but that Angelina was spotted at the OB GYN office of the doctor who helped Nicole Richie." That doctor is Dr. Jason Rothbart, whose fees just doubled.
Us Weekly seems to be falling behind, with only a Jan. 16 item that quotes George Clooney shooting down rumors of the pregnancy. Clearly he's a stupid moron!
Even the disreputable photo agency X17 is claiming an "X17 XCLUSIVE," with the balls to say that "other news outlets have been speculating that Angelina Jolie is once again with child, but an X17online inside source confirms that she's not only pregnant, she's expecting twins!" How xclusive!
Most surprising, however, is neither TMZ.com nor People have yet to post a story about it. It's as if they're waiting for a confirmation or something! And Bauer's Life & Style and In Touch, which last week published one of its regular Angelina "Pregnancy News" cover stories – which is suddenly more relevant than the "Britney Spears: 'I'm Not Crazy'" cover that hit newsstands Wednesday – is also absent from the conversation. And they live for Brangelina!
And if you think the new MySpace Celebrity has any updates for you, well, you're probably one of those people who never decamped MySpace for Facebook.
Heath Ledger had the audacity to die right after the tabloids closed this week's issues. Talk about rude. But some other actor died recently, and some of the magazines decided he was worth a mention. Janice Min even went so far as to dig up some background info on this "Brad Renfro" character.
In place of actual news, we get the usual: Britney continues to be crazy, Scientology continues to be creepy and Jessica Simpson continues her romantic losing streak.
Jamie Lynn is also back in the spotlight this week, and Star and Life & Style managed to create the exact same cover featuring Brit's little sister. Coincidence? Intern Whitney thinks not. CONTINUED »
Star's second favorite hobby – if calling Britney Spears a psycho is No. 1 – continues this month: raiding other tabloids for star reporters.
In this edition, we're hearing Candace Trunzo's camp just scored Kate Major, the In Touch trooper who's so enveloped in Lindsay Lohan's world that even OK! magazine couldn't resist a bite.
By one source's calculations, Kate is the sixth Bauer journo in seven months to decamp for the better pay scale at AMI, following West Coast reporter Tim Plant, New York's Aaron Rasmussen, Casey Brennan, and Cristina Everett, and In Touch's West Coast chief Martin Gould, who returned to Star as the No. 2 in October.
One source claims Kate told her Bauer bosses (including West Coast's David Thompson) on Friday of her decision to transplant to the East Coast, and turned down incentives to stay.
So if we've worked out the math correctly, it appears AMI chief David Pecker has the money to pay upper salaries for top reporters, editorial directors who do little to nothing, and late fees for missing SEC filing deadlines. It's like Michael Jackson is offering them financial advice.
Congrats to Lynne Spears! This week, her daughters had a monopoly on all the covers — Jamie Lynn still has some work to do, however, because she only appeared on one compared to Britney's four. It seems the crazy trumps teen pregnancy every time.
Besides the onslaught of Britney drama, there's lots of Hills gossip and Hollywood stars who still refuse to come out of the closet. What more could you ask for? Exclusives with Tara Reid and Amy Winehouse? OK! has you covered!
So let's travel to a world where suicide threats and kidnapping are the norm, and Britney seems to have hit rock bottom. But for some reason, Intern Whitney still isn't so sure. CONTINUED »
Vacation's over, but the tabs have yet to recover from their holiday hangovers. It's a sad day when pictures of Katherine Heigl's wedding excite us.
With all the celebrity diet "exclusives," Intern Whitney was happy to see Brangelina on the cover of Life & Style. The mag takes their stalking abilities to the next level, monitoring their family's daily habits with a time chart. Ground breaking work, for sure.
Star has resorted to more ugly pictures of celebrities to make you feel better about yourself, and the mag also teases us with the idea of a Britney and Jamie Lynn crazy house! We'd go. Other great ideas: Making Mischa Barton the godmother of your child, finding love via public restrooms and proposing to a Kardashian. What a week. CONTINUED »
Just how much did Bauer love Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie this year? SO MUCH!
Exactly how much? Well, consider that their tabloids Life & Style and In Touch put them on the cover a whopping 86.53 and 78.85 percent of the time, respectively. If math ain't your thing, that's 45 out of 52 weeks for L&S, and 41 times for In Touch.
Don't believe us? The full run-down, hand delivered to us, of every Brangelina cover for 2007 is yours, after the jump. CONTINUED »
This week, In Touch continues its tireless crusade to prove that Britney is pregnant, and those fake text messages from supposed father J.R. Rotem were real! Aw, we think it's cute that the staffers still think this is legit. Let's not spoil it for them by throwing around nasty words like "libel" and "malicious intent."
Meanwhile, Us Weekly gave up on any big news this week, opting instead to remind us of why we hated 2007. OK! took a different (albeit equally as lame) route, featuring the uninteresting Rachael Ray on its cover. But the big news of the week? Brad Pitt and Katie Holmes share the same Dec. 18 birthday! It's almost like everyone just threw in the towel.
Also funny: Every bodega owner within a five-block radius of our office seems to think Life & Style has ceased to exist. Intern Whitney was told by two or three separate magazine peddlers that Life & Style was "done for" this week, despite the fact that everyone else in the world seemingly got their grubby little paws on a copy.
There's nothing quite like a little unsubstantiated gossip to get our motors running. Which is why we were delighted by the dishy email this morning claiming that less than a week after PageSix.com's triumphant launch, there's already an onslaught of infighting, cattiness and overall dissension in the ranks.
Britney still might be pregnant this week, but most of the tabs aren't buying it. In Touch, meanwhile, is stubbornly sticking with their story/future libel suit. This week, the mag runs already-seen pictures of the texts from supposed-father J.R. Rotem, so it must be true! In other ridiculous news, Jennifer Aniston has been invited to spend Christmas with Brad's parents! We can't imagine why she would turn that goldmine down.
And true love takes another tough blow this week as Lindsay Lohan and her rehab boyfriend finally call it quits. But there is still hope! Just ask Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo — they managed to score two big stories this week, despite the general public still having absolutely no idea who they are.
And in news-that's-not-really-news: Britney has a shady friend, Hollywood women get plastic surgery and Anderson Cooper is still in the closet. Join Intern Whitney for a loving look at this week's tabloid goodness, including the Us Weekly cover story that some say has Wenner lawyering up.
This just in! In Touch's incontrovertible text message-related evidence attesting to Britney's pregnancy might, in fact, be totally made-up!
"A source close to Britney Spears' former producer (and ex) J.R. Rotem tells Usmagazine.com the text messages In Touch Weekly claims to have received are 'faked.'"
Even worse? Now JR has released a statement saying "There is absolutely no truth to this." Anyone else smell a libel suit? [Us]
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