Bonnie Fuller gets meaner to push up sales

Funny, how when newsstand and sub sales soar, Bonnie Fuller credits her own genius with having accomplished it; yet when single copy sales slump, as they have with the tabloid Star, she says the redesign she is launching has nothing to do with it. According to a story in Women's Wear Daily (WWWD):

The new elements will be rolled out over the next three to four weeks and will help Star stand out in an already-crowded field, according to Fuller. But as any savvy media observer will note, the redesign comes as newsstand sales have taken a downturn throughout the fall. The Oct. 30 issue sold 630,000 newsstand copies, and issues throughout September and October fluctuated between 680,000 and 800,000, down from a strong summer season — Star's Aug. 28 issue sold 943,000 single copies. Fuller denied the redesign has anything to do with newsstand performance. Moreover, Fuller chalks up the soft sales since August to normal seasonality across the entire celebrity weekly category as summer vacation season winds down.

New features are colorful callouts with editors' pictures and opinions sprinkled about Star article stories to infuse Star's "strong personality" into the pages. "Our editors will be more involved with the magazine," said Fuller.... We're going to be sympathetic hand-holders in a situation when our celebs need us," said Fuller.

Not always, though. Unsympathetic spreads of celebrity fashion miscues and plastic surgery stories, such as "Knifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and "Just Asking," which points out ridiculous appearances or actions of stars, will be expanded.

Such features also include snarkier captions and editors' quips, including associate managing editor Brooke Alovis' assessment of Ivanka Trump's breasts: "Her new boobs are set so far apart, you could drive a truck between them," and a caption on a picture of Lindsay Lohan in leggings said, "You're asking for more crotch jokes!"

Slightly harsh, Ms. Fuller? "I don't think it's mean," she responded. "We also have someone on the page that supports the choice," referring to an editor in support of the leggings trend.