Is this the beginning of the end for America’s First Family of reality television? Probably not. However, research shows that part of the American population that still buys glossy magazines are, totally, like sooo over the Kardashian/Jenners.
2015 was a big year for the notorious clan. Bruce Jenner became Caitlyn Jenner, Kendall became a one-name supermodel, Kim Kardashian got pregnant, Khloe shed her “the ugly sister” label, Kourtney dumped Scott, and Kylie completely morphed into Little Kim. Along the way, the family racked up several magazine covers, ranging from solo and group shots on Cosmo, GQ, Teen Vogue and more. While one would think scoring the media magnets means big magazine sales, that’s not exactly the case.
Sourcing data from the Alliance for Audited media, WWD found out that single-copy sales from multiple magazines that featured any one of the Kardashians/Jenners weren’t up to par with their usual numbers. For instance, Cosmopolitan‘s controversial “America’s First Family” November issue sold 100,000 copies less than Cosmo‘s average 531,000 copies. And it was pretty much the same when Kylie Jenner nabbed a Cosmo cover in February 2015 and sold just short of 500,000.
Allure, GQ and Glamour saw dips, while Rolling Stone benefited from Kim Kardashian’s breasts, as did Women’s Health when they featured a toples Khloe Kardashian on its cover.
As for other titles, Condé Nast’s Allure sold 81,385 copies with its March Kendall Jenner cover, which is on par with its first half average of 85,249 copies sold. The model also appeared on the cover of big brother GQ in May, and sold 83,202 copies, which was off about 10,000 copies from its first-half average.
Glamour registered newsstand sales of 164,918 for its July Kim Kardashian cover, which was 14.6 percent off its first half average of 193,108 copies. Teen Vogue outpaced its first half average by about 1,000 copies with its May Kylie Jenner cover that sold 48,237 copies on the newsstand. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone got a lift from its racy cover of Kim Kardashian with 89,100 copies sold, as did Women’s Health, which sold 265,965 copies for its Khloé Kardashian cover, depicting the reality star in an unbuttoned chambray shirt that revealed what she called her “revenge body.”
So, basically, more T&A equals more magazine sales.
(Via WWD)