Premiere magazine sells out to US Weekly

By Tom Tapp

Former subscribers of Premiere magazine are not happy.

Apparently Hachette Filipacchi, the company which owns what remains of Premiere, has sold the magazine's subscriber list to Jann Wenner's US Weekly. That means everyone who used to get Premiere will now instead be getting weekly updates on Britney Spears' cleavage. And judging from user comments on Premiere.com, they're none too excited.

"I have been informed I will now be receiving US Weekly," says a user named Trilbyb. "I hope the mail carrier brings it in a brown paper bag!"

Others have taken up arms and begun demanding refunds, offering advice and noting US Weekly customer service numbers on Premiere.com message boards. According to postings on the site, however, subscribers aren't getting fair market value.

Princessmoon81 says she subscribed to Premiere through June 2008. "I was told I could either get 22 issues of US Weekly or $8.20," she writes. "$8.20???? That doesn't seem right!!"

Indeed, a yearly subscription to Premiere purchased online was $16.95 at the time it folded. If Princessmoon81 had paid through June 2008, logic dictates she should receive at least that much back. If US Weekly were honoring its own subscription price, it would reimburse her for $51.48.

Either way, $8.20 makes no sense.

Some subscribers are taking a historical perspective. One, called Hansel2, says his $1.82 refund is "Better than what I got at SPY magazine's demise (nothing)."

It's a common practice in the publishing business to sell subscriber lists, especially when a title is defunct. It's a way of squeezing every last drop of revenue out of a failed venture. And it can be surprisingly remunerative.

Last Spring, Premiere had an audited subscriber base of of 435,000. They'd probably lost 35,000 of those by the end of the year. Jossip says Wenner paid about $2 a name, which would mean roughly $800,000 for Hachette.

For US Weekly, Jossip says the added subscriber numbers will help the mag reach it's guaranteed 1.85 million rate base to advertisers.

None of which helps the poor people who just want to read about movies.