
The price of doing business with the Kardashians
People magazine paid $1.5 million for exclusive photo rights of Kim Kardashian’s wedding to Kris Humphries.
The good:
- The issue sold 1.5 million copies (31 percent increase over the publication’s average sales).
- People.com attracted 6 million readers over 4 days.
The bad:
- In order to recoup on the financial cost of the photos, the magazine was sold for $4.99 at newsstands (a $1 increase over their normal issue price).
- Because magazines only get $2 back for every issue sold on newsstands, People needed to sell an additional 750,000 issues in order to break even on the money spent on Kim Kardashian’s wedding.
Let’s just say, this wasn’t exactly a win for the magazine.






