Again from 1994 and another .doc file. The assignment was probably to dissect a periodical. I like the righteous indignation I seem to have in it. Likely it was feigned for effect.

A Dissection of the October 10, 1994 issue of People Weekly Magazine

In the October 10, 1994, issue of People Weekly magazine the editors are attempting to fill their niche: the transitory, the fluff, and the trendy while still bowing to the almighty pressures of its advertisers.
We must feed the beast, slake the ravenous hunger that is the American (and Canadian?) obsession with celebrities. People Weekly Magazine is a magazine filled with advertising. Over 45% of its pages are ads. Strategic placement of advertising has become a science. For example, in the newspaper and magazine industry the price of a right hand page is up to 50% more expensive than the left hand page because the right hand page is more likely to catch the reader’s eye while flipping through the pages. Also good at catching the eyes are the inside and back covers of a magazine; these are the most expensive areas to advertise in.
A magazine may be many things, it may be designed for a wide audience or a small niche market, but one overriding and an all influencing factor is that a magazine is a business. Businesses must make profits to stay in business. Some magazines like National Geographic may have only one or two pages of advertising, garnishing nearly all of their money from subscribers with no newsstand or store sales. Others are free and have no advertisement (unless the whole magazine is one big ad), like The Plain Truth. This type of periodical may not make an economic profit, but it makes a profit of a sort. The majority however, garnish nearly all of their profits from advertising most often supplementing it with upfront cost to the customer. The dependence upon making a profit is indisputable. It is a necessity for continued existence. No money, no magazine. Therefore profit must be an all important factor in editorial decisions. If editorial decisions are under the influence of a profit margin, the editors when deciding about changes to their magazine, are always likely to err on the side of advertising. ‘How is this going to affect the advertisers?’ is undoubtedly a common phrase at editorial meetings.
‘Will they like our new colour glossy pictures or will it compete with their eye catching ads?’ This could be for example why many of the department photos are in black & white. Black and white photos surrounded by colour are not somehow cheaper to print than colour is. The department “In Her Words” (the least fluff-like and therefore the least People like piece in the magazine) in black and white. The “Inventor” department is very unconnected with Hollywood and therefore very un-People like. It is opposed by a bright and colourful advertisement for yet another People Weekly Magazine (102). The “Trouble” department is also in black and white yet it is talking about a Hollywood star, admittedly not a very hot Hollywood star this week but a star nonetheless. What reason could the editors have for printing or shooting these pictures in black and white? On the opposite page (109) where Mickey Rourke is dissected, there is a colourful advertisement. The reader's eye becomes drawn to the colour. It is distinguished from the article and perhaps distracting and it wants to be seen. The final two departments are “Animals” and “At Ease”. These are quite different types of articles. One is about Frisbee catching dogs. Another is about a television star’s book of black and white photos. Animals would clearly be easy to read if it were in colour but it is in black and white for much the same reason that the previous articles were. The final article is in black and white with one colour (not taken by the TV star) and has a big title. This is Hollywood stuff. A popular TV show with behind-the-scenes photos. This is People’s bread and butter. You can almost read the editor's discussion between the lines of this article, if you strain your eyes; “Great concept, but why did the actor take the pictures in black and white? Has he got any colour ones we can use instead? No. Well then, take a couple colours yourself, to help introduce the piece.”. The placement of the “At Ease” article at the back of the magazine does not mean the article is unimportant filler; on the contrary, the last few pages of articles are often the first few seen by many readers. This is due to the casual readers flipping (backwards) through the magazine.
People is a magazine that deals in only what is hot this week. Like other magazines in this niche (Us, Entertainment Weekly) People is a weekly magazine by necessity. In a week the hot thing/person, the new trend/fashion, the Hollywood controversy can be over and done with. In the March 7-14, 1994 issue of People assistant managing editor Susan Toepfer states “...People has become the bible of pop culture in America” (Page 3). Pop culture is by its very definition the transitory trend or the flash fad. People is eye candy filled with pictures, captions and articles, but mostly pictures. The type face is the largest out of eight magazines I looked at (it tied with Entertainment Weekly for the largest typeface). Easier to read? Or less word space to fill? You decide.
What possible purpose could the editors of People have for leaving out the page numbers on more than 71 % of the magazine's pages? Omni’s October issue has exactly 50 % of its pages numbered. Does it cost more for page numbers to be added? Are the editors just trying to cut down on costs? Unlikely. A more likely reason would be that the editors are under the influence of the advertisers, who wish to conceal the number of ads in the magazine by making it harder to count the pages.
People is illusory. Only 71.68 pages of the Oct. 10, 1994 issue of People Weekly is articles and pictures which is only 55% of the magazine. These articles includes the “Inside People” department, which unlike what you might have guessed isn’t about People Weekly at all but instead about a new People spin-off magazine called People Weekly Extra, even though it is slated to come out once a month. The cost of the articles and pictures is more than 21 cents per page in this particular issue. 21cents per page would be quite a shock to most readers.
The feature articles are a magazine’s selling point. It is the cover story and it is what grabs a customer’s attention. Surrounding a feature article are the departments. The departments of a magazine are the filler for most of the magazine. Departments are also most often the fluffiest pieces. People Weekly is no exception, its departments like: “Happy” and “Animals” demonstrate the editors’ streamlining of People so as to better ensure ‘light reading’ for its picture-oriented readership.
In researching the various aspects of People I have come to realize that a magazine of this type is and always will be hopelessly dated within two weeks. In its very first issue People covered these stories: William Peter Blatty, Marina Oswald, Stephen Burrows, The Loud Family, The Palm Beach Whirl, Vietnam MIA wives, Jim Croce, Richard Petty, The Hearsts, with another easy “People Puzzle” and a cover photo of Mia Farrow. How many of these people have any importance today? Not many. Mia Farrow maybe.
In conclusion, People Weekly Magazine is not about people. Not real people anyway. It is about Hollywood people, royal people, famous or infamous people. The values this magazine espouses are celebrity worship, and materialism. People is an unfortunate name for this magazine. It should have been called celebrity people or famous people. Then they wouldn’t have to have the other less interesting people at all. The editors try to strike a balance between giving the consumer what they want and pleasing the advertisers. With the People magazine publishers advertising new magazines like People Extra and People Weekly's: In Style they are attempting to get an even smaller niche. In Style will have only celebrities. It will undoubtedly dispense with the quotas it has in place, so as to better satisfy its consumers desire for all things fashionable; besides People should have a responsibility to have real people in it, but what responsibility does a magazine have that is called In Style? Someone once said ‘everyone gets 15 minutes of fame’. Perhaps they should have said one week.