Time Inc. People Editorial Records
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Creator
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Language of Materials
Abstract
The People Editorial Records contain records from offices and staff from the editorial side of the magazine, not the publishing or business side. Editorial staff represented include Cranston Jones, Lee Wohlfert, Marianne Macy, Martha Babcock, Sarah Rozen, Richard Stolley, and Dick Lemon.
Biographical / Historical
People magazine was launched as a newsstand-only publication on March 4, 1974, with Richard B. Stolley as the founding managing editor and Richard Durrell as the founding publisher. People was created under the Magazine Development Group, divesting and becoming its own department by 1978. Because the magazine was so dependent on newssstand sales, Stolley created this guideline for choosing cover subjects: "Young is better than old, pretty is better than ugly, television is better than music, music is better than movies, movies are better than sports, and anything is better than politics." People magazine exceeded sales of one million copies per issue by July 1974.
For the majority of Time Inc.'s existence, the company maintained a strict separation of editorial from the publishing and business side of each magazine, colloquially called the separation of "church" (editorial) and "state" (publishing). Editorial includes the editors, researchers, and art department. The editorial side reported up to the editor-in-chief and the publishing/business side reported up to the corporate business executive which was the president prior to 1960 and the chief executive officer after. Henry Luce structured Time Inc. this way so that the business side could not (in theory) influence the editorial content of the publications. For example, the advertising sales people could not interfere with a magazine's decision to run an article on the dangers of cigarette smoking, even though it might mean losing millions of dollars in tobacco ads.
Citation:
Bernstein, Lester. "Time Inc. Means Business." The New York Times Magazine, 26 February 1989.
Hooper, Bill. Email to Holly Deakyne, 10 June 2016.
Arrangement
The materials within the Time Inc. Subject Files record group are organized into three series based on hierarchy of job titles with general office files at the end:
Series I. Senior Editor Cranston Jones Files on Best of People
Series II. Writer Lee Wohlfert Files
Series III. People Magazine 50th Television Anniversary Issue Files
Scope and Contents
The People Editorial Records contain records from offices and staff from the editorial side of the magazine, not the publishing or business side. Editorial staff represented include Cranston Jones, Lee Wohlfert, Marianne Macy, Martha Babcock, Sarah Rozen, Richard Stolley, and Dick Lemon.
Records include memoranda, correspondence, book drafts for Best of People, article research, copies of books used in Wohlfert's research, news clippings, photographs, publishing budgets, Home Box Office's (HBO) Best of People television special script, and article drafts.
Subjects
Organizations
Access Restrictions
Open to qualified researchers with the exception of restricted materials. Materials created within the past 35 years also may be subject to restriction on a case-by-case basis. Materials are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use.
Use Restrictions
This collection is owned by the New-York Historical Society. The copyright law of the United States governs the making of photocopies and protects unpublished materials as well as published materials. Unpublished materials created before January 1, 1978 cannot be quoted in publication without permission of the copyright holder. Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to 20 exposures of stable, unbound material per day.
Preferred Citation
This record group should be cited as Time Inc. People Editorial Records, MS 3009-RG 10, New-York Historical Society.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Time, Inc. in 2015.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The People Editorial Records were processed and described in 2018 by Melanie Rinehart. The original folders were retained although some documents were transferred to archival containers in instances of overcrowding. Melanie Rinehart created the inventory and other descriptive notes to produce this finding aid.