Maclean's "skanks" cover a big bestseller

Maclean's magazine had one of its best single copy sales of recent years with the startling cover image and line "Why do we dress our daughters like skanks?". According to a story in mastheadonline (sub req'd), publisher Ken Whyte says the Jan. 1 issue could wind up selling more than 20,000 copies. Not only is this more than the entire draw of the magazine used to be (about 18,000; it's now more like 40,000) but it would put the issue up there as a besteller alongside the death of Lady Di and the expected sales of the March cover about Conrad Black's trial ("Trial of the Century").

Asked if he struggles in search of stories with lots of newsstand torque, Whyte demurs. “Just shouting at people won’t sell magazines, and it’s not in our interest to do that,” he says. “Some people think we’re provocative, some people think we just talk very frankly about things that they’re interested in. Everybody’s got opinions on these things but as long as we’re finding an audience and selling magazines, I’m not worried.”