Who magazine
Encyclopedia
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
published in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
by Pacific Magazines
Pacific Magazines
Pacific Magazines is a magazine publisher operating in Australia and New Zealand, owned by Seven Media Group. It has it roots in the Southdown Press, the publishers of New Idea and long owned by the Murdoch family...
. It was launched as a sister magazine to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
weekly People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
, with a name change facilitated because of an existing Australian lad's mag of the same name
People (Australian magazine)
People is a weekly Australian lad's mag published by ACP Publishing, a division of PBL Media. It has been published since the 1950s. It is not to be confused with the gossip magazine known by that name in the United States; that magazine is published under the name Who in Australia.People focuses...
As of 2006, Who had a circulation of approximately 153,000 and a readership of 837,000. The magazine features celebrity news and photos, interviews and entertainment reviews alongside human-interest stories plus lifestyle information involving fashion, food, beauty and health issues. The circulation in December 2008 was 135,000 copies per week.
The magazine is now published under license to Time Inc. Who can pick up original, owned content from People and Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
. Annual special issues, or 'franchises' include "Most Beautiful People", "Best & Worst Dressed", "Most Intriguing People", "Sexiest People", "Half Their Size" and "Best and Worst of the Year" features. These are not trademarked however and competitor magazines, such as NW
New Weekly
NW magazine is a weekly magazine published in Australia. It offers articles about media celebrities, Hollywood gossip, clothing, makeup, dieting, and entertainment. New Weekly was started by 1993 by then Australian Consolidated Press executive Richard Walsh, with a renaming to NW in 1998. ...
, have also published stories under some of these titles.
History
Time Inc.Time Inc.
Time Inc. is a subsidiary of the media conglomerate Time Warner, the company formed by the 1990 merger of the original Time Inc. and Warner Communications. It publishes 130 magazines, most notably its namesake, Time...
South Pacific launched Who into the highly competitive Australian weekly magazine market in March 1992. It differed to existing weekly, women's magazines in that it was not a general interest title with cookery, health and fashion and gossip, but instead focused almost exclusively on celebrity and entertainment news. It featured Candice Bergen
Candice Bergen
Candice Patricia Bergen is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for starring in two TV series, as the title character on the situation comedy Murphy Brown , for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards; and as Shirley Schmidt on the comedy-drama Boston Legal...
as its first cover girl, who was then starring in the sitcom Murphy Brown
Murphy Brown
Murphy Brown is an American situation comedy which aired on CBS from November 14, 1988, to May 18, 1998, for a total of 247 episodes. The program starred Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news anchor for FYI, a fictional CBS television...
. Initially editorial content was in black and white but by 1994 colour had been introduced throughout the magazine. The editorial content has since then broadened to include women's magazine staples such as fashion and beauty, in addition to celebrity news.
In 1997 Who celebrated its 5th birthday double issue, featuring Elle Macpherson
Elle Macpherson
Elle Macpherson is an Australian model, actress, and businesswoman nicknamed "The Body". She is perhaps best known for her record five cover appearances for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue beginning in the 1980s...
and a giant, golden “5” on the cover, which was photographed in Los Angeles. In April of the same year, the magazine collected its second consecutive Australian Society of Magazine Editors’ (ASME) premier award, this time for Best Reporting on the Port Arthur massacre.
In January 2001, Who changed from a Monday sale date to Friday to capitalise on pre-weekend sales. The magazine also rebadged its Picks & Pans review section after Entertainment Weekly, from which Who regularly picks up features. The reviews section was re-designed in late 2008 under the new title 'Reviews'. In July 2001, the magazine won the Magazine Publishers of Australia Award for General Excellence (General Interest/News Magazines).
In 2003, the magazine launched its new look resulting in a bigger trim size (275mm tall by 225mm wide), higher quality paper stock and with a brand new masthead. It is the most significant change since the magazine's inception. Since then, competitor magazines NW, Woman's Day
Woman's Day (Australian magazine)
Woman's Day is an Australian magazine published by ACP Magazines. It is the second largest magazine in Australia. The magazine recently underwent significant layoffs....
and New Idea
New Idea
New Idea is a long-running Australian weekly magazine published by Pacific Magazines and aimed at women.-History:The magazine was first published in 1902 by Fitchett Bros. Southdown Magazines purchased Fitchett Bros...
have all adopted the wider 225mm trim size and gone further, increasing their height to 300mm. With the exception of Famous, launched in 2006, Who is now smaller than its competition. More recent launches OK!
OK!
OK! is a British weekly magazine specializing in celebrity news. Originally launched as a monthly, its first issue was published in April 1993. In September 2004, OK! publishers Northern and Shell launched in Australia as a monthly title – the magazine went weekly in October 2006...
and Grazia
Grazia
Grazia is an Italian weekly women's fashion and celebrity gossip magazine, with international editions printed in France, Serbia, Australia, United Kingdom, Greece, Portugal, Japan, the Netherlands, India, Bulgaria and Germany....
magazines have also adopted the larger trim size.
In 2007 Time Inc. South Pacific
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
sold Who magazine to Pacific Magazines
Pacific Magazines
Pacific Magazines is a magazine publisher operating in Australia and New Zealand, owned by Seven Media Group. It has it roots in the Southdown Press, the publishers of New Idea and long owned by the Murdoch family...
.
Who magazine is printed by Hannanprint at two sites, in NSW and Victoria.
The magazine has been edited by Nicola Briger since December 2007. Briger is a former editor of Australian InStyle and Elle
Elle (magazine)
Elle is a worldwide magazine of French origin that focuses on women's fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment. Elle is also the world's largest fashion magazine. It was founded by Pierre Lazareff and his wife Hélène Gordon in 1945. The title, in French, means "she".-History:Elle was founded in...
magazines.