People magazine reversed decades of issue-oriented magazine journalism

Evidence

While it may seem obvious now, in the 1970s it was daring to part with even a pretense of newsworthiness and devote a magazine to nothing more than famous people and their lives. He named his idea the “People of the Week.” … A lot of American magazines had gotten away from the personality story; they’d become more issue-oriented. We intended to reverse that idea with People. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 756

Categorization

• XREF: Fits the book’s thesis that attention-harvesting industries cyclically rediscover personality as the cheapest, most reliable attention grab — connects to Time’s earlier move and social media’s later one. — connects to: People magazine cost 40 million dollars, one of largest magazine investments ever — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 761; Anti-snobbery media norms produced an infantilized rather than diverse culture; People magazine made celebrity the default lure across all future attention platforms — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 780 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• People magazine made celebrity the default lure across all future attention platforms #expands (0.90) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 780
• People magazine cost 40 million dollars, one of largest magazine investments ever #expands (0.75) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 761
• Anti-snobbery media norms produced an infantilized rather than diverse culture #expands (0.75)
• Personalized internet feeds destroyed shared common knowledge and split the public into oppositional realities #expands (0.70)