People magazine is clearly at the top of its market's heap. But for the first time in four years, they've begun a serious advertising campaign, and some view it as a sign of People in trouble. Peggy Mansfield, brand new publisher of In Touch, can smell blood in the water: she sees People's potential flounderings as "a great opportunity to bring advertisers into our magazine." The celebrity magazine market gets bigger and raunchier every month: next week tabloid Star will get a test relaunch in NYC and California as a glossy magazine. Otherwise normal-seeming people will probably actually purchase it.
A Magazine Goliath Faces Davids [NYT]