Today (March 4, 2024) marks the 50th birthday of People magazine, the first issue of which bore the cover date of March 4, 1974.
Although the new Time Inc. weekly was an immediate sensation in terms of newsstand sales and continued to be one of the most successful magazines for decades to come, it was not exactly a critical favorite, especially at the outset.
After running through—and thoroughly savaging—the debut issue's various articles, New York Times columnist William Safire concluded, "Maybe there is money in this sort of thing; if so, publishing empires whose executives harrumph about social responsibility should leave the field to upstart publishers more adept at grubbiness. People fails on the tawdry terms it has chosen: The sex is not sexy, the gossip is not current, the exploitation not with-it. Great effort is needed to lift it up to superficiality."
Over at the Washington Post, Tom Donnelly gave the new magazine points for being "gossipy, crisp, shrewdly derivative, and smartly edited," while noting that "it will tax but the shortest attention spans and it so undemanding that it can be read while the TV commercials are on." He called it "the reading equivalent" of convenience foods.
Steve Barthelme of the Texas Observer waited until People had put out five issues before offering his opinion: "It's difficult to be trendy and out of date at the same time, but so far People has managed. Five Edsels in as many weeks." Anyone who paid their 35 cents for the magazine, he maintained, "got taken in a big way," helpfully adding that "There is a wide variety of tasteful, interesting, exciting, rich and wonderful trash that can be had for 35 cents" and observing that "The ease with which this magazine can be read at a newsstand will amaze you."
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