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Andrew HeiskellAndrew Heiskell
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cheap way to reach a lot of people.

The magazine turned out to be a howling success. Now, it's--I don't know, probably the most profitable magazine in the country. It has also been able to prove that you don't only have to talk about “celebrities” but a lot of ordinary people are also very interesting. All sorts of different kinds of people do very interesting things that one wants to read about. So, it's worked out extraordinarily well.

Q:

When you came up with the idea, when it was forming in your mind did you have the name in mind as well?

Heiskell:

Oh, yes, yes. Not only did I have the name in mind, I insisted. I said, “If we can't get the name people, then forget because I can't think of any other word that will describe the magazine, and I'm very conscious of the importance of just the right title for a magazine. Time, Life, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Money, all very clear cut. The audience knows what they're about because the title is right. In fact, we couldn't get the word people because there was some obscure publication that had the title. But legally, we were allowed to call it People Weekly. “Very well, that's alright. That didn't do any harm to it. Let's not make “weekly” look too big”. [laughter] So, People Weekly it was. You know, I was right. The other people who tried other titles, any time you start anything successful you get imitators. Life had Look magazine. Look was a pretty good title. Sure enough, People had Us coming up. That was started by the New York Times. It's not only





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