People is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC.[3] With a readership of 46.6million adults in 2009, People had the largest audience of any American magazine, but it fell to second place in 2018 after its readership significantly declined to 35.9million.[4][5]People had $997million in advertising revenue in 2011, the highest advertising revenue of any American magazine.[6] In 2006, it had a circulation of 3.75million and revenue expected to top $1.5billion.[7] It was named "Magazine of the Year" by Advertising Age in October 2005, for excellence in editorial, circulation, and advertising.[8]People ranked number 6 on Advertising Age's annual "A-list" and number 3 on Adweek's "Brand Blazers" list in October 2006.
People's website, People.com, focuses on celebrity and crime news, royal updates, fashion and lifestyle recommendations and human interest stories.[8]
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 City, and it maintains editorial bureaus in Los Angeles and in London. In 2006, for financial reasons, it closed bureaus in Austin, Miami, and Chicago.[7][8]
History
Andrew Heiskell, who was the chief executive officer of Time Inc. at the time and the former publisher of the weekly Life magazine, is credited with coming up with the idea for People. The founding managing editor of People was Richard Stolley, a former assistant managing editor at Life and the journalist who acquired the Zapruder film of the John F. Kennedy assassination for Time Inc. in 1963. People's first publisher was Richard J. "Dick" Durrell, another Time Inc. veteran.[citation needed]
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 $40million into the venture, the magazine only broke even 18 months after its debut on February 25, 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[clarification needed] for the week ending March 4, 1974, featured actress Mia Farrow, then starring in the film 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.[7] The magazine was, apart from its cover, printed in black-and-white. The initial cover price was 35 cents (equivalent to $2.16in 2023).
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 Jr. (a former Life writer and also a film and television producer); 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, Joyce 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 murdered 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.[citation needed] In spring 2017, People Stylewatch was rebranded as PeopleStyle. In late 2017, it was announced that there would no longer be a print version of PeopleStyle and it would be a digital-only publication.
In Australia, the localized version of People is titled Who since there was already another magazine published under the title People. The international edition of People has been published in Greece since 2010.[citation needed]
On July 26, 2013, Outlook Group announced that it was closing down the Indian edition of People, which began publication in 2008.[12][13]
In September 2016, in collaboration with Entertainment Weekly, People launched the People/Entertainment Weekly Network. The "free, ad-supported online-video network... covering celebrities, pop culture, lifestyle and human-interest stories", was rebranded as PeopleTV in September 2017.[14]
In December 2016, LaTavia Roberson engaged in a feud with People after alleging they misquoted and misrepresented her interview online.[15][16][17]
Meredith purchased Time Inc., including People, in 2017.[18] In 2019, People editor Jess Cagle announced he was stepping down from his role.[19] It was later announced he would be replaced by deputy editor Dan Wakeford, who previously worked for In Touch Weekly.[20] Liz Vaccariello was named the new Editor in Chief on February 23, 2022, replacing Dan Wakeford.[citation needed]
On October 6, 2021, Dotdash agreed to purchase Meredith, which still owned People and sister magazines such as Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, and Chip and Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Journal,[21] in a $2.7 billion deal.[21] The purchase would be finalized on December 1, 2021.[22]
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens, called Teen People.[23] 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.[24] In exchange, subscribers to this magazine received Entertainment Weekly for the rest of their subscriptions. 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, and a decrease in circulation numbers.[25] 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. On the decision to merge the brands, he stated, "We've got traffic on TeenPeople, People is a larger site, why not combine and have the teen traffic going to one place?"[26]
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.[7]
People reportedly paid $4.1million for photos of newborn Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, the child of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.[7] The photos set a single-day traffic record for their website, attracting 26.5million page views.[7]
Sexiest Man Alive
The annual feature the "Sexiest Man Alive" is billed as a benchmark of male attractiveness and typically includes only famous people. 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."[27]
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 (21 years later the magazine did select Keanu Reeves to fill the 1994 gap, with runners-up including Hugh Grant and Jim Carrey). 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.
In December 2014, People selected its first and only Sexiest Woman Alive, Kate Upton.[51]Cindy Crawford and Richard Gere were declared "Sexiest Couple of the Year" on October 19, 1993.
In 2019, People selected its first Cutest Baby Alive, Andy Cohen's son Benjamin.[52] In 2020, Anderson Cooper's son, Wyatt Morgan, was named the Cutest Baby Alive.[53]
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.[54]
100 Most Beautiful People
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 2020, Goldie Hawn, Kate Hudson, and Hudson's daughter Rani made history becoming the first multigenerational cover stars of the Beautiful Issue. In addition, Hawn and her granddaughter concurrently became the oldest and youngest to cover the Beautiful Issue.[56]
People Magazine Yearbook is an annual publication released by publishers of People magazine, currently Meredith Corporation.[3] The Yearbook broadly covers all the major events that happened in the year that it covers. This includes socially relevant news events that made headlines around the world in general but more specifically in the United States. Besides the news headlines, it covers celebrity weddings, splits/divorces, births and deaths, and also scandalous events that generated a lot of news when they happened. Over the years, it has covered headlining events in the world of Music (Grammy Awards), Movies (Oscar Awards, The Golden Globe Awards), and Television (Emmy Awards) in a bite sized recap of the event and the award winners. The People Yearbook has had the year (say, 2010) written in Bold accompanying the word "Yearbook" on the front cover since the People Yearbook 1995,[57] although this gradually changed in the more recent editions. Since 2015, the "year" appeared in a more inconspicuous way on the front cover until the 2019 issue[58] and the bold style of writing the "year" made a comeback in the 2020 issue.[59] The year also appears on the spine.
Early years
The People Magazine Yearbook was first published in the Year 1991 by The Time Inc. Magazine Company and it was called "Private Lives".[60] This issue did not mention any year conspicuously on the front page or the inner page but the front flap of the hardcover version of the magazine described Private Lives as "People's chronicle of an extraordinary year - 1990", clearly describing that the events covered inside were from 1990. Next Year, the 1992 sequel to Private Lives was published and it was called "Private Lives Volume II".[61] The first page had an additional tagline that described the magazine as The Year in Review: 1991 Private Lives. In 1993, there was another change in the publication and also its cover title. The year was added on the cover for the first time and this annual issue was called "Private Lives 1993".[62] The "Year" appeared in Bold on the front cover. The first page described the publication as Private Lives The Year in Review: 1992. Next year, in 1994, People Books released Private Lives 1994[63] with the first page that said Private Lives Year in Review: 1993. The year 1996 ushered in the single biggest change in the magazine title. The title was reworked and found a new moniker - It was called "People Yearbook 1995".[57] Previous title of "Private Lives" was dropped completely and the publication was defined as a "yearbook" for the first time.
Changes over the Years
In all the years since its inception, People Magazine Yearbook has covered events from the previous year and not the year on the front cover, and this is true even from the time period when it was called Private Lives. For example, People Magazine Yearbook 2008 covered events of 2007.[64] And People Magazine Yearbook 1998 covered the events of the Year 1997.[65] 2014 was the last year for this to happen. The 2014 yearbook covered events of 2013.[66] In 2015, a shift happened in the magazine that changed for the first time the year it actually covered within its pages. Instead of covering the events of 2014, this issue covered the events of 2015 and arrived on the stands towards the end of 2015.[67] To make the shift properly understood, the first page of this yearbook included a tagline "The Most Memorable Moments of 2015". With this move, People Magazine Yearbook changed its own 25-year-old tradition. This shift, however, resulted in the year 2014 never being covered by the People Magazine Yearbook and 2014 became the only year not to be covered since its inception in 1991. Since then, the People Magazine Yearbook has been covering events of the same year that are on the Front Page. Another typeface change was experimented for two years when People Magazine Yearbook 2013![68] and People Magazine Yearbook 2014![66] had an exclamation mark following the year. This was dropped in the 2015 Yearbook and the publication discarded the exclamation mark. However, this issue dropped the Bold writing of the "Year" on the front cover and replaced it with a more inconspicuous style and it was like that until the 2019 issue.[67]
The 2016 Yearbook was a special "flip cover" issue wherein it combined a special edition memorabilia to cherish the memories of people who died in 2016.[69] The list included Prince, David Bowie, Nancy Reagan, Alan Rickman, Doris Roberts, Muhammad Ali etc. The special edition could be accessed by flipping over the magazine. In November 2017, Meredith Corporation announced that it would acquire Time Inc. for $2.8billion.[70] The acquisition was completed on January 31, 2018.[71]Time Magazine, People Magazine and also People Magazine Yearbook are now published by Meredith Corporation. The copyright of the 2018 Yearbook was described as belonging to Time Inc. Books, a division of Meredith Corporation and published by People Books, an imprint of Time Books.[72][73] This issue included the tagline, "The Most Memorable Moments of 2018" on the cover. However, in the 2019 Yearbook, the copyright was described as belonging to Meredith Corporation, without any prominent tagline.[58] The prominent bold writing of the "Year" on the front cover made a comeback with the 2020 Yearbook, along with a tagline saying "Our Extraordinary Year Together".[59] The trend continued with the 2021 Yearbook, along with a tagline saying, "When We All Got Together Again".[74]
Time is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on March 3, 1923, and for many years it was run by its influential co-founder, Henry Luce.
Sports Illustrated (SI) is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twice. It is also known for its annual swimsuit issue, which has been published since 1964, and has spawned other complementary media works and products.
Fortune is an American global business magazine headquartered in New York City. It is published by Fortune Media Group Holdings, a global business media company. The publication was founded by Henry Luce in 1929. The magazine competes with Forbes and Bloomberg Businessweek in the national business magazine category and distinguishes itself with long, in-depth feature articles.
Life is an American magazine originally launched in 1883 as a weekly publication. In 1972 it transitioned to publishing "special" issues before running as a monthly from 1978, until 2000. Since 2000 Life has transitioned to irregularly publishing "special" issues.
Esquire is an American men's magazine. Currently published in the United States by Hearst, it also has more than 20 international editions.
Vogue, also known as American Vogue, is a monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine that covers style news, including haute couture fashion, beauty, culture, living, and runway. It is part of the global collection of Condé Nast's VOGUE media.
Men's Health (MH), published by Hearst, is the world's largest men's magazine brand, with 35 editions in 59 countries; it is the bestselling men's magazine on U.S. newsstands.
Entertainment Weekly is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular culture. The print magazine debuted on February 16, 1990, in New York City, and ceased publication in 2022.
Patrick Galen Dempsey is an American actor and racing driver. He is best known for his role as neurosurgeon Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd in the ABC medical drama series Grey's Anatomy. He is also known for his leading man romantic films roles, including in Enchanted (2007). Dempsey has received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards, and was named as People's Sexiest Man Alive in 2023.
Us Weekly is an American weekly celebrity and entertainment magazine based in New York City. Us Weekly was founded in 1977 by The New York Times Company, who sold it in 1980. It was acquired by Wenner Media in 1986, and sold to American Media Inc. in 2017. Shortly afterward, former editor James Heidenry stepped down, and was replaced by Jennifer Peros. The chief content officer of American Media, Dylan Howard, oversees the publication.
Money is an American brand and a personal finance website owned by Money Group. From its 1972 founding until 2018, it was a monthly magazine published by Time Inc. and subsequently by Meredith Corporation from 2018 to 2019. Its articles cover the gamut of personal finance topics ranging from credit cards, mortgages, insurance, banking, and investing to family finance issues, including paying for college, credit, career, and home improvement. It also publishes an annual list of "America's Best Places to Live".
Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned newspapers, magazines, television stations, and websites. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more than 40 million, and its websites had nearly 135 million monthly unique visitors. Its broadcast television stations reached 11% of U.S. households.
Food & Wine is an American monthly magazine published by Dotdash Meredith. It was founded in 1978 by Ariane and Michael Batterberry. It features recipes, cooking tips, travel information, restaurant reviews, chefs, wine pairings and seasonal/holiday content and has been credited by The New York Times with introducing the dining public to "Perrier, the purple Peruvian potato and Patagonian toothfish".
InStyle is an American monthly women's fashion magazine founded in 1994. It was published in the United States by Dotdash Meredith, and started originally as a brand extension of People before carving out its own identity. In February 2022, it was announced that InStyle would cease print publications and move to a digital-only format.
Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake Time, Sports Illustrated, Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine, Fortune, People, InStyle, Life, Golf Magazine, Southern Living, Essence, Real Simple, and Entertainment Weekly. It also had subsidiaries which it co-operated with the UK magazine house Time Inc. UK, whose major titles include What's on TV, NME, Country Life, and Wallpaper. Time Inc. also co-operated over 60 websites and digital-only titles including MyRecipes, Extra Crispy, TheSnug, HelloGiggles, and MIMI.
People en Español is a Spanish-language American magazine published by Dotdash Meredith that debuted in 1996, originally as the Spanish-language edition of its publication People. As of 2009, it is the Spanish-language magazine with the largest readership in the United States, reaching 7.1 million readers with each issue. Distinguishing itself from its English-language counterpart, People en Español's original editorial content combines coverage from the Hispanic and general world of entertainment, articles on fashion and beauty, and human interest stories. It was created and launched by Time Warner media executive Lisa Garcia Quiroz. Angelo Figueroa was the magazine's founding managing editor, who led the editorial department for its first five years.
Departures is an American digital lifestyle magazine with a focus on luxury and travel for holders of American Express Platinum and Centurion charge cards. It was formerly a print magazine published by Meredith Corporation under an arrangement with American Express. On March 25, 2021, it was announced that Departures would cease print publication, and, according to an American Express statement, transition "to a new digital-first editorial platform." American Express announced that it was ending its publishing deal with Meredith.
Irina Valeryevna Shaykhlislamova, known professionally as Irina Shayk, is a Russian fashion model. She received international recognition when she appeared as the first Russian model on the cover of the 2011 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In 2022, the website Models.com placed her on their list of the New Supers.
Billboard is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to the music industry. Its music charts include the Hot 100, the 200, and the Global 200, tracking the most popular albums and songs in various music genres. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm and operates several television shows.
Mikhail "Mike" Oskarovich Varshavski, known online as Doctor Mike, is an American and Russian YouTuber, internet personality, certified family physician, philanthropist, and professional boxer. His Instagram account went viral after he was featured in BuzzFeed and People magazine named him The Sexiest Doctor Alive in 2015. He has a YouTube channel on which he posts medically themed entertainment videos and debunks false medical claims.
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