A Sea Change for the Swimsuit Issue
The come-on of Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue remains unchanged--images of bikini-clad models arrayed on sun-splashed beaches. But the 33rd edition, which went on sale Wednesday, is the first to feature an African American model on the cover and the first to utilize the seaside and desert sands of South Africa as its setting.
The model is Tyra Banks, a Los Angeles native and actress who has graced covers of Elle, Self and GQ. In the new issue, she joins Valeria Mazza, an Argentine, making this only the third time that more than one model has appeared out front. If past swimsuit issues offer a guide--Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley and Elle Macpherson did covers--Banks and Mazza have taken major strides toward model superstardom.
The swimsuit issue ranks as one of publishing’s biggest hits--a phenomenon that sells an estimated 2 million additional copies, at $4.95 a pop, of what is mainly a mail-subscription magazine. Total distribution of the issue is 5 million copies. Syndicated research shows that about a third of those who pick it up are women, many of whom want a preview of new summer beachwear.
This year’s hype began with a “news conference” Tuesday afternoon at the Official All Star Cafe in Times Square, where models featured in the issue paused for interviews with dozens of TV news crews.
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Stern Reminders: When Sean Folkson used to tune in Howard Stern in midshow, the Queens resident often needed a few minutes to figure out what the broadcaster and his dysfunctional radio family were talking about. Like a soap opera, the Stern show presumes a certain familiarity with what happened a half-hour or an hour earlier.
Seeing an opportunity, Folkson has launched the Daily Report, a faxed newsletter that summarizes Stern’s latest antics. Monday’s issue, for example, peeled off our fax machine minutes after that morning’s show had ended, describes Stern’s on-air conversation with Dick Cavett and the latest wrinkles in the shock jock’s feuds with Soupy Sales and Kathie Lee Gifford. “The Daily Report is not associated with Howard’s show, it only covers the show,” Folkson said.
Folkson has faxed advertisements for his newsletter to 5,000 businesses in the New York area and so far about 3% of the recipients requested sample issues. Subscriptions go for $4 a week, $14 a month and $96 a year.
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Judging a Book . . .: You can’t judge a book by its cover, but maybe you already did.
If the cover of Jonathan Harr’s “A Civil Action” had been livelier than a raised black title on an off-white background, perhaps more buyers would have picked up the real-life legal thriller that reviewers praised and Entertainment Weekly proclaimed 1995’s book of the year.
Random House, which was expecting to sell more than 100,000 copies, has done only half as well (still not too shabby for a nonfiction title) in the four months since publication. As a result, the publisher is doing what many other authors might pray for, but in vain. The company is reintroducing the book by putting a jazzier jacket on the 50,000 unsold copies. The new look--raised gold lettering against the image of a gavel slamming down--highlights the plaudits for the book from EW and John Grisham, the king of legal fiction.
“This isn’t a corpse by any means, but it should have more life,” Random House publisher Harold M. Evans said. “I feel so strongly, especially because the author gave eight years of his life to the book.”
The account of a protracted effort to seek redress for families that drank from poisoned wells in Woburn, Mass., has been bought for the screen by Robert Redford.
Sure, re-jacketing the book (instead of consigning it to the industry’s big pile of titles that failed to excel at retail) may be Random House’s way to generate the kind of media interest that usually comes but once.
Behind the scenes, however, the publisher also is trying to thin the amount of unpurchased stock by offering retailers a $4 credit on copies sold by Feb. 17. This incentive, typically passed along to consumers, is known in the biz as “remaindering a book in place.” It’s a strategy whereby humbled publishers seek to head off the number of copies that may be returned to them by the booksellers.
Also counting on a book cover is W.W. Norton. The publisher hopes to draw attention to one of its new books by starting in the halls of Congress. More than 500 copies of Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore’s “The Godless Constitution: The Case Against Religious Correctness” were delivered on Tuesday to Washington lawmakers, Supreme Court justices and other officials. The special editions of the book, which takes on the Christian right by offering a scholarly argument for the separation of church and state, are embossed with an excerpt from Article VI: “. . . no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
As shops and super stores bulge with titles, lucky is the author whose book manages to stand out in the crowd.
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Afterwords: Actress Carrie Fisher, playwright Neil Simon, CBS sportscaster Pat O’Brien and music critic Robert Palmer all have monthly columns in the new Live! The magazine is published in Los Angeles by Ticketmaster, which has more than a little self-interest in seeing live entertainment and sporting events covered as energetically as Live! does the job. Indeed, a regional pullout guide to local events comes as part of the package.
The cover story in the premiere issue, which went on sale this week, is about Bruce Springsteen (now on tour). The mag also contains a whimsical photo essay on old ballparks, including Yankee Stadium. The editor in chief is Annie Gilbar, who helped launch InStyle.
