# How do gossip mags like OK! & People etc. justify millions paid for celeb baby pics? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 17, 2008, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gossip-mags-like-ok-people-etc-justify-millions-paid-for-celeb-baby-pics/456795 "2008-07-17T03:33:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gossip-mags-like-ok-people-etc-justify-millions-paid-for-celeb-baby-pics/456795/1 "2008-07-17T03:33:46Z")
The millions and millions paid (seemingly) every other week to pregnant celebs for these baby pics beggars the imagination. Are they really selling enough extra advertising to support these payouts? Are regular women that gaga over actresses baby pics? ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gossip-mags-like-ok-people-etc-justify-millions-paid-for-celeb-baby-pics/456795/2 "2008-07-17T03:55:54Z")
Yes, they must be. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gossip-mags-like-ok-people-etc-justify-millions-paid-for-celeb-baby-pics/456795/3 "2008-07-17T04:09:18Z")
Why should a company (or a person) have to justify how they spend their money? It is their money after all. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gossip-mags-like-ok-people-etc-justify-millions-paid-for-celeb-baby-pics/456795/4 "2008-07-17T04:09:59Z")
Here’s a list of the ten most expensive celebrity photos (as of about a year ago). They aren’t just the first shots of the baby. They are also wedding pictures and a few other things: > **[In Pictures: The Most Expensive Celebrity Photos](https://www.forbes.com/2007/07/17/celebrities-photojournalism-magazines-biz-media-cx_lr_0718celebphotos_slide.html)** > > Our list charts the development of a maturing market for A-List images worth tens of millions. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gossip-mags-like-ok-people-etc-justify-millions-paid-for-celeb-baby-pics/456795/5 "2008-07-17T04:12:53Z")
Sorry that’s a very Handy-ish answer. As I understand it, payment from advertisers depends on measurement of circulation. Obviously income from cover sales likewise. As I understand it considerable effort goes into studying what causes positive effects on circulation. I would assume that such magazines have, after close consideration, concluded that this sort of material sells mags. No doubt precisely what will and won’t improve circulation is something of a “black art” given the intangibles involved, but I think the answer to your questions must be yes. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gossip-mags-like-ok-people-etc-justify-millions-paid-for-celeb-baby-pics/456795/6 "2008-07-17T09:54:35Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi] Why should a company (or a person) have to justify how they spend their money? It is their money after all. [/QUOTE] Because the magazines in question may be published by a publically owned company, and the shareholders have a right to know how the company is spending their investments, and why. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gossip-mags-like-ok-people-etc-justify-millions-paid-for-celeb-baby-pics/456795/7 "2008-07-17T11:04:13Z")
I just cant see why anyone would be interested myself. I couldn’t care less what famous people do anyway and a baby is just a baby to look at no matter whos it is. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gossip-mags-like-ok-people-etc-justify-millions-paid-for-celeb-baby-pics/456795/8 "2008-07-17T11:22:12Z")
Not only do celebrity baby pic scoops improve circulation, so does news of those publications paying huge $ to get them…people will buy the magazine just to see what the hubbub is about. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gossip-mags-like-ok-people-etc-justify-millions-paid-for-celeb-baby-pics/456795/9 "2008-07-17T12:10:04Z")
[QUOTE=psychonaut] Because the magazines in question may be published by a publically owned company, and the shareholders have a right to know how the company is spending their investments, and why. [/QUOTE] You’re talking about the _management_ of People magazine, which wasn’t part of the question. ---
**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gossip-mags-like-ok-people-etc-justify-millions-paid-for-celeb-baby-pics/456795/10 "2008-07-17T13:35:09Z")
Some industry insiders present this as a catch-22. They need to get these pictures to maintain their standing and market share in a dwindling business, but they don’t make a [profit](http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=5378829&page=1) on them in all likelihood. > [@](#): > > Do the huge payouts translate to big sales? To a degree: Even after People raised the price of the issue featuring Jolie and Pitt’s daughter, Shiloh, by 50 cents, it sold 2.2 million copies. > > “It does help magazines,” said Samir Husni, who chairs the journalism department at the University of Mississippi. “There is an old saying: Give me a picture of a baby, a beautiful woman, chocolate or a dog, and I will sell a magazine.” > > But with the publishing industry in peril, even the magazine that scores the photos of Vivienne and Knox may lose in the end. **Celeb weeklies can’t afford not to battle over baby pictures, but they can’t afford to pay stars millions of dollars, either.** > > “If you’re in that world, these are have-to-have pictures. Your street cred is based on whether or not you get them,” said Abe Peck, professor emeritus-in-service at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. “And the publication that gets those photos of Brad and Angelina’s twins, they’ll get a big spike. They will get more subscriptions. And there’s more money out there with Internet ad revenue. But still, I just can’t see the economics working out – even if you sell a million more copies, you’re not going to recoup those losses.” Also [here](http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080715/media_nm/jolie_pictures_dc) > [@](#): > > However, “if that price is accurate, it likely would become a loss leader for whoever bought it,” Peck added. > > “The big celebrity magazines might be willing to lose money in order to establish or maintain A-list primacy.” > > \*\*According to the New York Times, the top U.S. sales increase based on an exclusive was probably Jolie and Pitt’s first baby, Shiloh, which helped People magazine sell 800,000 extra copies. > > But that would not be nearly enough to make up the reported $4.1 million it paid for the rights\*\*. So it would appear that most deals of this sort are loss leaders. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gossip-mags-like-ok-people-etc-justify-millions-paid-for-celeb-baby-pics/456795/11 "2008-07-17T15:10:30Z")
They justify it the same way everybody else justifies expenses. How do owners/managers of sports teams justify giving a .500 lifetime pitcher a $50,000,000 contract? How do owners/managers of movie studios justify paying comics $20,000,000 a movie? Multiply these by a thousand examples Either the money is an investment that brings in multiple times the revenue in return or else the person spending the money gets fired or goes out of business. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gossip-mags-like-ok-people-etc-justify-millions-paid-for-celeb-baby-pics/456795/12 "2008-07-17T15:54:13Z")
Plus, in this era of PHOTOSHOP, who can tell if a photo is geniune? i recall when the Russian Chernobyl power plant blew up-a european magazine paid $500,000 for a photo-which later turned out to be one of a old abandoned factory! ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gossip-mags-like-ok-people-etc-justify-millions-paid-for-celeb-baby-pics/456795/13 "2008-07-17T17:03:45Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi] Why should a company (or a person) have to justify how they spend their money? It is their money after all. [/QUOTE] I think the OP means in an economic sense rather than a moral one. Did People Magazine somehow increase revenues by more than $4.1 million after paying that much to get photos of Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt? OTOH can the Domino Pizza PAC (for example) justify its contributions to political parties? In the moral sense, it doesn’t have to. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gossip-mags-like-ok-people-etc-justify-millions-paid-for-celeb-baby-pics/456795/14 "2008-07-17T17:34:41Z")
Remember that a good chunk of a magazine’s income is not from the money paid at the newstand, but from advertisers. And advertisers don’t only want numbers, but also the right demographics of readers. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-gossip-mags-like-ok-people-etc-justify-millions-paid-for-celeb-baby-pics/456795/15 "2008-07-17T23:31:17Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] Plus, in this era of PHOTOSHOP, who can tell if a photo is geniune? [/QUOTE] The people in the photos are professional celebrities. Being celebrities is what they do for a living and they will not pass up an opportunity to make a buck. If you think the money these magazines pay for their pictures is a lot, you cannot begin to imagine how much they would have to pay in damages if they faked an image of a professional celebrity and seriously tried to pass it off as the real thing.