Rolling Stone: shelf hog

Really interesting post on David Hepworth's blog where he points out that the "terrorist" Rolling Stone issue doubled newsstand sales. To 13,000:

The really interesting thing was this was twice as many as usual, which means that the average issue of Rolling Stone, no matter what superstar, nymphet or American icon is on its cover, no matter how fabulous the cover concept, no matter how expensive the photographer, actually manages to motivate just six and a half thousand Americans to go to the news stand.

Now, it's America, where magazines are sold more through subscription than on the shelves, but that figure of 6,500 is fascinating.

There isn't a supermarket book corner, 7-11 rack or Barnes & Noble display which doesn't carry a couple of issues of each edition Rolling Stone. Even if you cautiously estimate that as 50,000 outlets across the US, with two issues each... that's a hell of a lot of magazines being printed simply to be pulped.