Royal Baby Cover Watch
Prince George Alexander Louis has arrived and we can all breath a sigh of relief that he's here safe and sound. We can only hope that he will, one day, rule wisely and justly over all the subjects of the United Kingdom. Here in the United States, a former colony of said Kingdom, we can just munch popcorn and read all about the doings of the Windsor family in our favorite celebrity magazines.
I was feeling particularly sentimental when I posted the following on Twitter:
It may be wrong for me to speak out on behalf of members of the PBAA, IPDA and MPA, but this should be a good thing for our wholesalers, retailers and national distributors. We'll know soon enough.
Meanwhile, over the the United Kingdom, the editors of OK Weekly took a rather serious misstep when they went to press with this cover:
Or did they? Take a serious misstep, that is.
Baby weight? On the plus side, at least the image wasn't of Princess Kate breastfeeding a digitally aged Prince George Alexander with a cover line asking "Royal Enough?"
Either way, like their American cousins at Rolling Stone, the brouhaha they've raised over their "poor choice" or cover lines should insure that their magazine will cut through the heavy chatter of the current news cycle and be something that people talk about. Will it impact their newsstand sales? Maybe. Good or bad? We'll see.
Meanwhile, Time Warner's People Magazine seems to be first to press with a baby special on this side of the Atlantic. Timing is everything and first to market usually wins.
And I was intrigued to discover that New Zealand has their own version of Woman's Day. This is their cover:
Watch my Twitter feed for retail pictures all of the royal baby special editions as I find them during my retail visits.
If you come across any interesting display pictures, please send them my way (joe.berger at newsstandpros.com) and I will post them either here, or on my Twitter feed.