People shares royal baby cover coup with Maclean's and Hello! Canada

Media maven Keith Kelly of the New York Post claims that only People magazine, among weekly titles, has the picture of the royal George on its cover, completely ignoring the fact that Hello! Canada (see earlier post) and Maclean's do (see right). Had he said only American title, of course, he'd have been correct.

People Managing Editor Larry Hackett gambled that his man on the street in London, Simon Perry, was correct in that the royal baby would be presented to the public on Tuesday — allowing him to hold up publication just long enough to include the photo on the cover. 

Rival celebrity weeklies, including Us Weekly, Star, In Touch and Life & Style, will acknowledge the baby’s birth with small “chips” of the happy couple on the cover, but no photo of the newborn prince.

“The timing was perfect,” said Hackett, who held up the magazine’s print run by a couple of hours to get the photos of daddy William, mom Kate and their 8 lb., 6 oz. bundle of joy on the cover. Inside are 19 pages of royal baby coverage.