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the voice of Us
Editor: I'll tweak but the magazine is on course
By Jeff Bercovici
Wenner Media erased a big question mark yesterday when it named Bonnie Fuller editor of Us Weekly. Fuller has edited some of the biggest names in women's magazines: Cosmopolitan, Glamour and YM. She takes over at Us from Terry McDonell, who joined Sports Illustrated this week after seeing Us through the initial uncertain period following its relaunch as a weekly two years ago. Fuller talked with Media Life yesterday about her plans for punching up Us, her feelings on weekly journalism and her reputation for playing on readers’ hormones.
Let’s start with the important question: As a Canadian, how did you feel about the Olympic skating scandal?
Well, I’m very happy with the outcome. In fact, I saw the gold medals being awarded. I was in the arena that night.
Jann Wenner, your new boss, said you impressed him with a critique of Us Weekly that made him think you understand the magazine even better than he does. What did you say?
First of all, I agreed with him that the team had very much got it on course, and that the mix of celebrities and style and pop culture and entertainment news was working.
The things that we talked about were essentially tweaks and building on the strengths of the magazine to make it communicate more effectively, to make it a little more exciting, eye-catching, to draw the reader into every page--little things.
During Terry McDonell’s first year as editor in chief the magazine went through a lot of very visible experimentation as McDonell tried out a variety of editorial approaches and angles. Is the magazine past that point, or can we expect more experimentation?
I don’t think that any magazine is ever past the point of trying out new things, whether it’s trying out a new department or column or trying a new typeface. Every magazine benefits from trying things.
I think we will continue to do some experimenting, because when you do experiments you learn.
A major part of the reputation that proceeds you as an editor is your penchant for "sexing up" a magazine with racy cover lines and graphic bedroom service pieces. Do you think you’ve earned this reputation for raunchiness, or is it exaggerated?
I think that it’s important whenever you do a magazine to really think hard about who the readers are and why they’re buying the magazine and what it is you’re trying to communicate.
For Cosmo that was one thing. For Glamour it was another, and we communicated differently. The cover lines were different from Cosmo, and there were many different subjects that we dealt with on the cover.
This magazine needs to be sold in a completely different way. So the areas that I’m going to be focusing on are the areas that have been working really well for the magazine.
Those are stars, style, pop culture, beauty and news stories, many of them related to celebrities. Those are the areas of content.
The area you’re talking about isn’t really part of the central part of the magazine. It’s a different magazine, it’s got different needs and it needs to be sold a different way.
You’ve been working at monthlies for many years now. Do you, especially as a mother of four children, expect to find the faster pace of editing a weekly to be a challenge?
Well, it will be an exciting challenge.
The great thing about doing a weekly is that you can really leap on stories, you can leap on news and get it out there. A monthly has different sorts of challenges.
Also, listen, deadlines on a big monthly magazine are pretty tight and hairy too.
So, yes, it will be an exciting one but it will be one that the staff is very used to dealing with and that I will become very used to dealing with, too.
Where does Us fit in the universe of magazines that contains People, Entertainment Weekly, the Enquirer, Premiere. What’s its unique draw?
First of all, one of its unique draws is that it is a weekly, it can present news in the style and celebrity arenas very quickly. It’s a very well-researched and fact-checked magazine, so the information that’s present is information that the reader can really rely on.
It’s also a very visually exciting magazine.
It’s very different from Entertainment Weekly in that, yes, it covers entertainment, but its form and substance have to do with catching celebrities at events and in their daily life—sort of a newsiness about celebrity life, a newsiness about celebrity style.
What are your immediate priorities?
To get in there.
February 28, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
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