Two million dollars for a cover picture – that's what OK magazine is reported to have paid for the exclusive photo of actor Larry Birkhead, the confirmed father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby, Dannielynn, photographed for the first time together in the Bahamas.
Whether it is a record, it was probably worth it. It's claimed it was OK's biggest selling issue, at least in the US. By comparison the decision of In Touch to forget celebrities for at least one issue and devote its cover to the massacre at Virginia Tech turned out to be a newsstand bust. "It was one of our lowest issues of the year" admitted editor-in-chief Richard Spencer.
Sales, according to the NY Post, totalled under 900,000. Normally the magazine sells around l,200,000 on the newsstands. Any regrets? "I still think it was worth doing", said Spencer. But he admitted he might not try the idea again. All of which may point the moral that people why buy celebrity magazines expect celebrities on the covers. Both The Star and Life & Style did well with covers featuring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Even though the stories inside – about their rumoured break-up – were nothing special. Meanwhile US Weekly went with a cover picture of Prince William and Kate Middleton – which turned out to be mildly disappointing, It sold around 900,000. A year ago US was selling over a million.
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