JLo Stalker

Newsstand Crack Babies

by Cherie on February 20th, 2008

In my post yesterday I mentioned the fact that J-Lo reportedly was offered $6 million by People for the first photos of her twins. People, of course, denies this, much as they denied paying a high price to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie for pictures of Shiloh. Still, they paid a high enough figure, and we have to wonder: why?

In a recent Advertising Age article, the cost of shelling out money for baby photos in exchange for a jump in magazine sales is analyzed. I found some of the figures very interesting.

For example, when Britney Spears and K-Fed were on the cover of People with their first child, magazine sales were actually down 15%. Whereas the arrival of Shiloh lifted sales for the mag by 45%. Add to that the “50¢ markup and with incremental ad pages to boot” and AdAge says People’s take that week was “easily $3 million more than usual.”

But not everyone pays for baby pics. Remember the whole “where’s Suri?” fiasco after Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had not taken the tot out in public immediately after it was born? Demand for pictures was at an all-time high. Annie Leibovitz was then hired to take pictures of four-month old Suri with her parents, and one of the shots was featured on the cover of Vanity Fair. Reportedly that issue sold 60% more copies than average, and Vanity Fair paid nothing for the photos. They did, however, feature a 22-page spread of Suri with Cruise and Holmes.

Speaking of Vanity Fair, AdAge mentions them for their once putting Paris Hilton on the cover (which was very much against the norm for the magazine) because she represented “newsstand crack.” They go on to ask this question:

Now we see the next generation: newsstand crack babies. The question is precisely who’s addicted?

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POSTED IN: Baby Pictures