Americans love to read about the personal lives of celebrities. The marital infidelities, the break- ups, the flings, the brushes with the law, and other intimate facts about the rich and famous attract that attention of millions of people. We seem to enjoy reading about the lives of our favorite television, music, and sports stars. Finding out that the individuals we idolize have interests and flaws just like us makes them seem more human.
One magazine that helps keep inquiring minds abreast of the latest gossip about celebrities is People, a weekly magazine that was first published in 1974. It has been keeping readers informed about celebrity gossip now for thirty years, and it still going strong.
Features of This Magazine:
People Magazine varies in length from one issue to the next, with each copy containing between 140 and 210 pages. You can expect to find the following regular departments:
Mailbag- This is a one- page section with letters from readers. Each letter contains an opinion by a reader, but there are no responses from the folks at People.
People.com- Here, you will find a quick (less than one page) summary of what is available on the magazine’s web page.
Star Tracks- This monthly department includes about 4 or 5 pages of photos of different celebrities with a brief comment or two on each.
Scoop- If you want to find out the latest gossip relating to one of your favorite singers or acting stars, “Scoop” will let you know what’s going on at the time.
Picks and Pans- The latest movies, DVD releases, television shows, music, books, and other entertainment media are featured in this department.
Insider- This is a one- page article that provides some more gossip summaries of Hollywood stars.
Passages- In this monthly article, you will find a quick summary of who is expecting a child, who has given birth, who has a birthday, who has been arrested and/or convicted of a crime, and who has died in the world of the celebrity
Style Watch- Here, you will find two or three pages of celebrities sporting the latest fashions, with some advertisements and contact information thrown in, just in case you would like to make a purchase.
Chatter- Found at the very end of each issue, chatter contains (you guessed it) more gossip from the rich and famous with an occasional question and answer session aimed at celebrities.
In addition to these monthly departments, each issue of People Magazine contains about 15 to 20 different articles about celebrities, movies, and other entertainment- related topics with such titles as “Controversy”, “Crime”, “Preview”, “Fresh Start”, “Spotlight”, “On the Move”, “Romance”, “Up Front”, “Angels”, “Tube”, and more.
Costs to Subscribe:
People Magazine carries a high base subscription rate of $2.09 per issue, which works out to $108.68 for a full year. Six month subscriptions are also available, at a cost of $2.19 per issue or $56.94 total. These represent a decent (although not very impressive) discount from the $3.29 cover price.
Searching for a better deal online proved to be hopeless. With most magazines, I can usually logon to a site and find a deal that is a few dollars better than the base subscription price. This is not the case, with People Magazine. Every place I searched, the price for a six- month and one- year subscription was roughly the same (within a dollar) as the base rate.
Customer Service:
If you are presently a subscriber and need to inquire on your account, change your address, renew your subscription, stop delivery, etc., you can perform all of these tasks through the web site, people.com. You can also logon and start a new subscription through the site, which includes your first four issues free of charge.
If you would rather call to get questions answered, People Magazine has a toll free line to help answer your questions. The number is 800-541-9000.
Final Thoughts:
People Magazine is a publication aimed at those individuals who just cannot get enough of hearing about well- known singers, movie stars, television celebrities, and other famous people. Each and every week, the reader is treated to pages and pages of stories about the rich and famous- who they are sleeping with, who they are courting, who had a baby with whom, and other assorted dirt and grunge.
This magazine is meant to keep readers informed of the latest happenings in the personal lives of well- known People. This is the magazine’s main mission, and it looks like it has succeeded. Well- known stars of popular music, film, and television, grace the pages of People, with all sorts of juicy tidbits relating to their personal lives. Some of it is old news; some of it is factual; and some of it is rumors with no proof about the truth or falsity of the allegations. Every now and then, People will surprise me with a story about a celebrity legend from the past, proving that no one is immune from the far- reaching inquiring eyes of a magazine like this one.
To make up for all the weekly dirt, People does manage to redeem itself a little bit with its all-too-infrequent articles on people in the news. These are not Hollywood celebrities, but just ordinary people who made the news for either positive or negative reasons. Some examples here include stories about the Laci Peterson case, Chandra Levy (the missing intern who supposedly had a fling with U.S. rep Gary Condit and was never seen again), and others. These more serious stories that People includes every now and then are often quite interesting and it’s a shame that the editors don’t include more of them.
Besides the stories about people in the news, the other area that I enjoy most in this magazine is “Picks and Pans”. I like keeping up with the latest book releases, movies, videos, and other entertainment media. And since People is published every week, I can feel pretty confident that these new releases are very up to date. I have found out about many good books and CD’s from reading this section each week.
Advertisements cover about 35 percent of the pages of each issue of People, which is actually a little bit lower than other magazines. The advertisements are varied, and they center on all sorts of different products and services, like food, cars, mattresses, furniture, medicine, electronics, and other things. Because it’s a publication without a specific product theme, advertisers of all different stripes fill the pages of People.
Even though People is primarily a gossip magazine, it’s not quite as silly and offensive as some of the industry champions of celebrity slime. Basically, People is like a classier version of the Star or National Enquirer. The presentation, the photos, and the writing are better than other gossip magazines and People at least tries to be taken seriously from time to time, which is more than can be said of many of its sister publications.
Another thing that is different about People is the length. Each issue is between 140 and 210 pages, and it’s common to find many issues on the upper end of that range. You don’t find many weekly publications with so many pages of articles. Of course, the price per issue and the price to subscribe are also much greater than other weekly magazines, so I guess it would be expected that the length would also be longer.
With a subscription base of more than two million, People is one of the most popular weekly publications in the United States. The publishers must be doing something right, to have such a large group of loyal readers. I think it speaks volumes about the general love of gossip and infatuation that ordinary people have with the rich and famous. It’s difficult to take a magazine like this completely seriously, with all the sex scandals, inside scoops, and other personal info that can be found in each issue, but apparently some people do, or the magazine wouldn’t be so popular. I suppose the magazine could be worse. It could lower itself to the shameful level of some of the other gossip magazines. But in spite of its efforts to remain a little more respectable, it still fails most tests of readability. The articles are often very shallow and have nothing important to say.
In a nutshell, People Magazine is a glossy gossip magazine with little of interest to those who don’t follow the Hollywood crowd with enthusiasm and groupie- like frenzy. If you like to read about things like Brittany Spears brief wedding in Vegas, Michael Jackson’s cosmetic makeovers, Russell Crowe’s fling with Meg Ryan, and other Hollywood rumors and mishaps, then People is the magazine for you. For the rest of us, People makes a nice read when we visit the dentist’s office. It’s better than a root canal, yes. But it doesn’t really contain anything intellectual enough to stimulate interest for more than about 10 to 15 minutes.
Recommended:
No
Primary Reason for Buying: Product Reviews/Information This is a: Tabloid
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