The Glossy Tabloid Bubble Gets Leaky

Well, you could see this coming. Celebrity weeklies -- those pesky magazines that have crowded out all other life at the newsstand like foreign weeds in a Texas lake -- are finally losing their momentum. People and Us were both down on the newsstand in the first half of the year. Star was, too, but that's nothing new. OK, In Touch and Life & Style all continued to grow, but at a slower clip. At the rate it's going, L&S will take another five years to hit 1 million in circulation, which might not be fast enough, or so a knowledgeable Bauer Publishing source tells me.

"It might be some reader fatigue," People editor Larry Hackett tells WWD. Ya think?

N.B. #1: The Times misses the story by focusing on total circulation rather than single-copy sales. Subscriptions cost money, they don't make money.

N.B. #2: You can bet that Us's softening sales figured into owner Jann Wenner's munificence towards editor in chief Janice Min in last month's contract talks. The days of hitting (non-guaranteed) circulation bonuses are over.