It turns out that Michelle Obama is not general-interest magazines' new Princess Diana, whose face on the cover regularly helped boost newsstand sales. A Michelle Obama cover doesn't hurt a
general-interest magazine, the numbers suggest, but it doesn't produce more than an occasional lift, either.
The most positive exception may be O, The Oprah Magazine, whose April
cover showed the first lady with Oprah Winfrey. On newsstands, the issue is tracking 25% higher than average 2008 sales. On the other hand, New York March 23 issue looks to have produced only
average sales. People's March 9 issue with the first lady sold about 1.4 million copies on newsstands, in line with the March 5, 2008 issue. The Feb. 9 issue of Us Weekly, featuring
Michelle and her daughters, sold about 800,000 copies, which is about average.
A few early covers had weak sales, including Newsweek's Dec. 1 issue, with 15% below average and
More's October issue, at 23% below average.
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