For housewives, starring Housewives: Reality TV tabloid to launch
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Add reading to the Situation’s gym-tan-laundry list: The publisher of the National Enquirer and Star plans to launch a magazine devoted solely to covering reality television.
The glossy, photo-heavy Reality Weekly, produced by American Media Inc., will hit newsstands in January. It’s a dream come true for Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton and other tube-based talents who will no longer have to vie with movie stars for printed space.
And at $1.79 an issue, the publication aims to be cheaper than competitors such as People and Us Weekly. Reality Weekly will be offered at the same newsstands at grocery stores and retail chains such as Wal-Mart, Kmart and Rite Aid, with an expected circulation of 250,000 to 450,000, the company said.
The magazine will feature segments such as the “Biggest Fights of the Week,” recapping on-air brawls, and a roundup of bikini-clad stars called “Hottest Shots of the Week.”
American Media is keeping production costs low, basing the magazine out of its existing New York headquarters and asking the current staff to do double duty. Richard Spencer, the editor in chief of OK magazine’s U.S. edition, will also serve as editor in chief of Reality Weekly.
Meanwhile, magazines focusing on the real world instead of ‘Real World’ are struggling.
Newsweek is scrapping its 27-year-old political series this election season as it attempts to deal with a faster news cycle and tightening budgets, according to the New York Times. The magazine, whose circulation plunged nearly 32% last year, would publish long-form profiles of presidential campaigns.
Even the top-ranked magazine by circulation, AARP The Magazine, saw its numbers slip 3% in 2010 to 23.7 million. Fourth-ranked Reader’s Digest slipped nearly 24% to 5.8 million, according to the MPA magazine association.
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-- Tiffany Hsu
