Entertainment Weekly
Encyclopedia : E : EN : ENT : Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is a magazine published by Time Inc. in the United States which focuses on entertainment news, reviews, and previews for movies, television, music, dvd's, books, and popular culture. Entertainment Weekly also runs [link], one of the top websites for entertainment information.
Unlike US Weekly, People, or In Touch Weekly, EW is not a celebrity magazine or a tabloid, but focuses on entertainment media. Entertainment Weekly was successful upon launch, finding a target readership quickly in the popular entertainment field. EW is America's first and only successful prosumer magazine. #redirect It could be described as a trade magazine with photos aimed at "general" readers. While celebrities are generally featured on the cover, the topics covered include analysis of TV ratings, movie grosses, production costs, concert ticket sales, ad budgets, and in-depth articles about scheduling, producers, showrunners, etc. While Entertainment Tonight (the TV series) established that there was public interest in behind-the-scenes coverage of the entertainment industry, it really took Time Life (as they were then) to prove that Americans were interested enough to read about every week much like Weekly Variety albeit with less wonky jargon and with better photos.
The general consesus was that there was not really a need for another "movie" magazine with PREMIERE (plus another 20 minor movie magazines) and at the other end, TV GUIDE - seemingly covering the spectrum of needs. Not many publishing companies would've dared make a weekly commitment to launching such a title in spite of no obvious cry for such a magazine - especially since Time LIfe had failed so spectacularly a few years early with a TV Guide knock off.
The first edition was published in 1990 (k.d. lang was on the first cover), and the magazine's weekly circulation averaged 1.7m copies per week during 2003 ([Source: Magazine Publishers of America]). The website was launched in 1998.
The magazine's current managing editor is Rick Tetzeli, and the website's current managing editor is Jay Woodruff.
The magazine has recently (March 2006) changed the graphics and content of the magazine, giving the magazine a more modern look.
Typical Content
Like most magazines, there are usually a number of ads within the first few pages, followed by a table of contents and a letters to the editor section.News and Notes
This is a section of smaller articles about dealing with recent events. The whole section typically runs 8 to 10 pages long, and features several specific recurring sections:- The Hit List, written each week by critic Scott Brown, highlights ten major events, with short comedic commentaries by Brown. Typically, there will be some continuity to the commentaries.
- The Deal Report, written by Michelle Kung, highlights business deal and signings that have recently taken place. The section is separated by medium, but within each section separate events are separated only by ellipses. There are also typically a number of headshots of persons under discussion, as well as one full body shot.
- The Fever Chart is a small infographic showing six events, ranked on their impact by temperature.
- The Style Sheet is a full page devoted to celebrity style.
- The Monitor is a single page devoted to major events in celebrity lives. It is very tabloid-like in nature, highlighting events like weddings, illnesses, arrestes, court appearances, and deaths. Deaths of major celebrity are typically detailed in a full page obituary titled Legacy.
Feature Articles
There are typically four to six major articles within the middle pages of the magazine. These articles are most commonly interviews, but there are also narrative articles as well as lists.The Must List
This is a one page section highlighting ten things (books, movies, songs, etc.) that the staff loves from the week.Reviews
There are seven sections of reviews in the back pages of each issue. In addition to reviews, each has a top sellers list, as well as numerous sidebars with interviews, or small features. Unlike a number of European magazines that give their ratings with a number of stars (with normally 5 stars for the best review), EW grades the reviews so that the highest reviews will get an 'A'.The sections are:
- Movies will typically feature all of the major releases for that weekend, as well as several independent and foreign films that have also been released. Lisa Schwarzbaum and Owen Gleiberman are the two primary movie critics, with occasional reviews by Scott Brown. This EW section also includes 'Critical Mass' - a round up of the grades that have also been given by a number of noted movie reviewers in the American press (such as Ty Burr from The Boston Globe and Todd McCarthy from Variety. Additionally, this section includes the box office figures for the previous weekend.
- DVD & Video rates recently released DVDs on both the quality of the film, and of the DVD extras. Generally they avoid rating the films themselves, unless it is something that was not recently in theaters. A chart is also given that displays the sales of DVDs and the amount of video rentals for the previous week.
- Television Reviews made-for-TV movies and new series, as well as some television specials. There is also a section of sound bites featuring quotes from various television shows. The section also includes the Nielsen ratings for the previous week.
- What to Watch, currently written by Alynda Wheat, features brief one or two sentence reviews of several TV shows on each night of the week, as well as one slightly longer review, usually written by someone else, with a Letter grade.
- The A List First appearing in the April 14, 2006 issue, a (detachable) monthly roundup of movies, DVDs, Music, TV, and Books that have received a grade of A- or higher in the past month.
- Music reviews major album releases for the week, divided by genre. There is also typically at least one interview or feature, as well as a section called "Download This," highlighting several singles available for download on the internet. A chart displaying record sales and airplay for the previous week is also included.
- Books features reviews of books released during the week. Sometimes, authors will write guest reviews of other works. There is also typically one interview or spotlight feature in this section per issue. Bestseller lists appear at the end of this section.
- Theater (Not in every issue) reviews shows currently playing, divided by the city where they are running.
The Back Page
The final (non cover) page of the magazine is devoted to a different feature each week. The features include:- The Pop of King, Stephen King's column, where he discusses various aspects of pop culture, including movie or book recommendations among other things.
- Stupid Questions with..., a short interview, usually with a comedian or comic actor, featuring witty, irrelevant, or playfully insulting questions.
- The Great American Pop Culture Quiz has been running for the Magazine's 15th anniversary. The quiz features trivia questions about pop culture from a specific year. Each time the quiz is published, they highlight another year that the magazine has been in publication. This was also the inspiration for the VH1 televison show, The World Series of Pop Culture
Specialty Issues
Every year, Entertaiment Weekly does a number of specialty issues. These issues are often published as double issues (issues given two consecutive weeks as its date). Usually, these features will be so big in length that it will take the place of all other feature articles.Common Specialty Issues
- Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter Preview - Generally, each quarter, they look at what is upcoming releases in movies, music, television, live shows, and books. Occasionally, the focus will be on upcoming movies only.
- The Photo Issue - Once a year, they dedicate an issue to featuring, aside from the normal reviews and news content, only photos of celebrities. Unlike tabloid issues, these are photos done with the celebrities' cooperation, and often times use some form artistic expression. A wide variety of celebrities are used, such as: Green Day, Reese Witherspoon, Morrissey, the cast of the show Arrested Development and Cameron Diaz. Generally, the photos will contain some descriptive text, sometimes about the person, or sometimes a commentary from the photographers.
- End of the Year Issue - The last issue of each year. On each cover is the Entertainer of the Year, which is chosen by readers at their official website. The issue consists of the 10 best in theater, film, TV, music, DVD, literature and (as of last year) fashion. Music, TV and movies have two critics give their top 10; the others only have one. Each section also has a 5 worst list (Movies is the only section in which both critics give the worst). Also in the issue are special sections devoted to (and logically titled) Entertainers of the Year, Great Performances, Breakout Stars, a timeline of infamous celebrity mishaps, and obituaries of stars who died (this used to be in a separate issue; it was combined with the EOTY issue in 2003). This is the only issue without any reviews.
External link
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.