Monday, March 07, 2005

Vanity Fair

I was reading headlines at the Drudge Report and this blurb captured my attention:

VANITY FAIR editor Graydon blames the cover models for his magazine's flagging newsstand sales in a recent interview.

The drop, he said, was the result of three covers in a row featuring men at the end of 2004 -- Jude Law in October, Johnny Depp in November and Leonardo DiCaprio in December. "The simple fact is that women tend to sell better than men on our covers," he said.

Monday's NEW YORK TIMES notes in the last half of 2004, newsstands sales of VANITY FAIR plunged 22.5 percent. Carter may have found a way to improve those sales with the cover of the April issue, which features three models in white bikinis. "Meet the New Wave of Eastern European Supermodels," the headline reads. Carter was not available for comment.

About a year ago I use to buy Vanity Fair regularly. I thought of it as a “People” magazine for grown-ups. I found it a good barometer of pop life – not cutting edge but modern popular life. I stopped purchasing the magazine when the Anti-Bush rhetoric seemed like the only agenda of the magazine and it was so in your face that I could no longer stomach paying to read it. Recently, I was talked into buying an edition for the first time in a long time as my oldest son wanted to read about the latest Star Wars movie that was being featured. I had supposed that I was one of a few that found the Anti-Bush agenda off putting but in light of the above I suppose I wasn't as alone as I thought I was.

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