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From the NewsMax.com Staff
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For the story behind the story...
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Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2004
Gibson's 'Passion' Cover a Best Seller
People magazine's March cover story, "Inside Mel's 'Passion'" about Mel Gibson's blockbuster film "The Passion of the Christ" was the magazine's biggest newsstand hit for the first six months of the year, selling a huge 1.7 million copies.
With that kind of success at the newsstands, it's no wonder that People remains the champ among celeb-watching mags, with it's sales up 3.3% on newsstands, and 2.8% overall, to 3.7 million.
According to the New York Daily News' ace business columnist Paul Colford, the big loser in the circulation wars was Martha Stewart Living, which Colford reported suffered a plunge in subscriptions and newsstand sales, as total circulation sank 19%, to 1.9 million.
Colford wrote in his Hot Copy column that the Audit Bureau of Circulations released figures for the first six months of 2004 yesterday.
The figures showed:
A Jack Nicholson cover was Esquire's best seller, with 140,428 copies sold in January.
An Orlando Bloom cover was GQ's top draw. At 290,000 copies, it outsold issues featuring covers of Karolina Kurkova, Ashton Kutcher and others.
The Star's "Best & Worst Beach Bodies" cover in late June, which showed a bikini-clad Mariah Carey (best) opposite an unflattering shot of Jerry Hall, (worst), was the magazine's top newsstand seller, at more than 1.2 million copies.
In Touch Weekly soared 73.6% on newsstands, and 77.4% overall, for an average circulation of 751,000.
Lucky, the guilty pleasure and shopping mag, gained 18 percent on newsstands
Jane's 733,000 reflected a 16.5% bounce on newsstands.
Maxim's total circulation was little changed, at 2.5 million, but the mag took a 15.8% dive on newsstands.
Editor's note:
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