First-order celebrity can reanimate declining media sectors like print magazines

Evidence

Oprah widened her brand and attention harvest with the launch of O, The Oprah Magazine, named for her, of course, and with a flattering photo of her on the cover of every issue. The magazine, which surged to a circulation of over two million, had roughly the same demographic target as the show, women over fifty. Here was more attentional real estate, carefully balancing free endorsements with paid advertisements. It showed what an elixir first-order celebrity had become; clearly it had the power to reanimate even fading media sectors like consumer magazines. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 802

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the platform/attention economics theme across the book — celebrity as attention infrastructure in the way Wu frames Paley’s networks and later the attention merchants of the internet age. — connects to: Celebrity fame now functions as a loss leader for other products — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 656; Declining ratings drove traditional media to recruit internet celebrities as audience draw — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame…, 198; People magazine reversed decades of issue-oriented magazine journalism — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 756

Broader Connections

• Celebrity fame now functions as a loss leader for other products #corroborates (0.92) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 656
• Declining ratings drove traditional media to recruit internet celebrities as audience draw #exemplifies (0.88) — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 198
• People magazine reversed decades of issue-oriented magazine journalism #exemplifies (0.75) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 756