It's also against good taste, since on most covers she looks like she's about to molest the women she's posing with.
Posted on 07/01/2002 11:17:30 AM PDT by Temple Owl
Mediaweek.Com
Rosie: My Mag Is Not Riveting
Lisa Granatstein
JULY 01, 2002 -
The departure last week of Rosie editor Catherine Cavender after little more than a year at the helm has exposed a host of challenges facing the 3.5 million-circulation women's monthly, published by G+J USA and owned jointly by G+J and Rosie O'Donnell. Cavender's exit came seven months after the magazine's publisher was replaced when advertising pages began to head south.
While O'Donnell was not the catalyst for Cavender's departure -- the decision to replace her with Susan Toepfer, deputy managing editor of Time Inc.'s People, was made by G+J president/CEO Dan Brewster -- the actor/comedian is clearly disappointed with the year-old magazine's editorial direction, and with its cover choices in particular.
Launched in May 2001, Rosie set out to transform G+J's failing service title McCall's into an irreverent women's lifestyle magazine filled with "humor and humanity." But the magazine has veered off track, O'Donnell said.
"With the first two or three issues, we were going in the right direction," she said. "Then we just took a left down the safety zone. And I don't want to live there. It's boring. It's not what I do."
The magazine's advertising is back on track under publisher Joan Sheridan LaBarge, who replaced Sharon Summer last November. Through July, Rosie has run 552 ad pages, more than double the total over the same period last year, according to the Mediaweek Monitor. Subscription sales are also said to be on track.
But Rosie's newsstand sales are slumping. After selling between 550,000 and 600,000 copies per issue last year (the May premiere sold 750,000), Rosie has trailed off this year to an average of 400,000. Most of the magazine's covers have featured O'Donnell with celebrity pals such as Gloria Estefan (April), Martha Stewart (June) and Lara Flynn Boyle (July).
"Newsstand sales are worse than planned," Brewster acknowledged. Those sales, which are more profitable than subscriptions, are commonly viewed as a key indicator of an editor's success or failure.
The magazine "doesn't seem to have a lot of energy," said Anita Peterson, print director at OMD USA. "The covers with Rosie in the background were cute in the beginning, but it's gotten a little predictable."
As for any impact following her announcement last spring that she is gay, O'Donnell said that revelation has not been an issue. In fact, all the media attention made her more famous, she said. "I think if I came out and said, 'Look, I got my nipples pierced and I'm joining a separatist movement and all men should rot in hell,' it might have come across a little different."
While O'Donnell said she does not look at newsstand figures, she believes that the covers have not been reflective of the title's mission. That, she added, is about to change.
"I never want to be on another cover," O'Donnell said. "Part of the agreement to do this magazine was that I [would] do only one cover a year, and I have been on the last eight or nine covers. That has been a big problem for me. I hate photo shoots. I would rather have root canal than do a photo shoot. Having me on the cover is against the manifest of what I'm about. I didn't make my fame and fortune by selling me. I made it by observing and celebrating other people."
Following the September issue, O'Donnell said she is done fronting Rosie. "I did a cover with The Sopranos [stars] that's in the can, and that's it," she said.
Perhaps equally important to O'Donnell is the rationale behind the cover subjects. "I didn't want to put Drew Barrymore on the cover, [just] because she had a movie out," O'Donnell said of last November's edition. O'Donnell wanted to lead the issue with an interview she did with Christopher Reeve, in which the paraplegic actor described how he taught his son to ride a bicycle. The cover shot of Reeve "made my knees weak."
O'Donnell is still waiting for her Reeve cover. But the editors "won't do it ... they want me," she said, noting the package has been gathering dust for seven months. Though O'Donnell is a half-owner of Rosie, G+J's editors have final say over the magazine's contents.
"Rosie and Susan together have to work out the content," Brewster said regarding the magazine's future direction. Toepfer, who starts on July 8, will report to Brewster. "Susan has an extraordinarily good interpretation of Rosie's vision, which is tell it like it is, emotional, with humor, and sometimes controversial," the CEO added.
And if O'Donnell chooses not to be on every -- or any -- cover, Brewster said he would be fine with that. "This magazine ultimately has to stand on its own," he said. "And the fact that its voice emanates from the voice and vision of a celebrity does not require her to physically appear on any issue."
O'Donnell, who has had one meeting with Toepfer, said she she is willing to defer to the new editor's expertise. "She knows so much more than I ever will," O'Donnell said.
For her part, Toepfer plans to energize Rosie and give it more focus. "The whole magazine can be made more forceful, energetic and fun," she said. "I really want to rev up the dialogue the magazine has going with readers. And it should also be more entertainment-oriented, because Rosie the personality is an entertainer."
"This magazine is going to be phenomenally successful," O'Donnell said. "It's just the beginning."
Hey, I might buy that issue just for the shock value alone!
Who says prayers aren't answered?
ROTFLMAO The rag is toast and everyone in the industry knows it. Nothing like thowing good money after bad. I hope G+J and Rosie spend themselves into bankruptcy on this trash.
My advice to Rosie: Left was a bad choice. Take a Right.
So why don't they just call it "Susan" magazine now?
It's also against good taste, since on most covers she looks like she's about to molest the women she's posing with.
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