Andrew Heiskell, who was the chief executive officer of Time Inc. at the time and the former publisher of the weekly
Life magazine, is credited with coming up with the idea for
People. The founding managing editor of
People was
Richard Stolley, a former assistant managing editor at
Life and the journalist who acquired the
Zapruder film of the
John F. Kennedy assassination for Time Inc. in 1963.
Peoples first publisher was Richard J. "Dick" Durrell, another Time Inc. veteran. Stolley characterized the magazine as "getting back to the people who are causing the news and who are caught up in it, or deserve to be in it. Our focus is on people, not issues." Stolley's almost religious determination to keep the magazine people-focused contributed significantly to its rapid early success. It is said that although Time Inc. pumped an estimated $40 million into the venture, the magazine only broke even 18 months after its debut on February 25, 1974. Initially, the magazine was sold primarily on newsstands and in supermarkets. To get the magazine out each week, founding staff members regularly slept on the floor of their offices two or three nights each week and severely limited all non-essential outside engagements. The premiere edition for the week ending March 4, 1974, featured actress
Mia Farrow, then starring in the film
The Great Gatsby, on the cover. That issue also featured stories on
Gloria Vanderbilt,
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and the wives of U.S. Vietnam veterans who were
missing in action. and Jed Horne, later an editor of
The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. In 1996, Time Inc. launched a Spanish-language magazine entitled
People en Español. The company has said that the new publication emerged after a 1995 issue of the original magazine was distributed with two distinct covers, one featuring the murdered
Tejano singer
Selena and the other featuring the hit television series
Friends; the Selena cover sold out while the other did not. Although the original idea was that Spanish-language translations of articles from the English magazine would comprise half the content,
People en Español over time came to have entirely original content. In 2002,
People introduced
People Stylewatch, a title focusing on celebrity style,
fashion, and beauty – a newsstand extension of its Stylewatch column. Due to its success, the frequency of
People Stylewatch was increased to 10 times per year in 2007. In spring 2017, People Stylewatch was rebranded as PeopleStyle. In late 2017, it was announced that there would no longer be a print version of PeopleStyle and it would be a digital-only publication. In Australia, the localized version of
People is titled
Who since there was already another magazine published under the title
People. The international edition of
People has been published in Greece since 2010. On July 26, 2013, Outlook Group announced that it was closing down the Indian edition of
People, which began publication in 2008. In September 2016, in collaboration with
Entertainment Weekly,
People launched the People/Entertainment Weekly Network. The "free, ad-supported online-video network... covering celebrities, pop culture, lifestyle and human-interest stories", was rebranded as PeopleTV in September 2017. In December 2016,
LaTavia Roberson engaged in a feud with
People after alleging they misquoted and misrepresented her interview online.
Meredith purchased
Time Inc., including
People, in 2017. In 2019,
People editor Jess Cagle announced he was stepping down from his role. It was later announced he would be replaced by deputy editor Dan Wakeford, who previously worked for
In Touch Weekly. Liz Vaccariello was named the new Editor in Chief on February 23, 2022, replacing Dan Wakeford. On October 6, 2021,
Dotdash agreed to purchase Meredith, which still owned
People and sister magazines such as
Entertainment Weekly,
InStyle, and ''Chip and Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Journal'', in a $2.7 billion deal. In April 2025, People launched a standalone mobile application featuring a vertical, scrollable feed of celebrity news, videos, and lifestyle content aimed at younger audiences. The publisher, previously Dotdash Meredith, adopted the name People Inc. in 2025, reflecting the central role of the People brand within the company’s media portfolio.
Teen People In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at
teens, called
Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced that it would shut down publication of
Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. In exchange, subscribers to this magazine received
Entertainment Weekly for the rest of their subscriptions. There were numerous reasons cited for the publication shutdown, including a downfall in ad pages, competition from both other teen-oriented magazines and the internet, and a decrease in circulation numbers. Teenpeople.com was merged into People.com in April 2007. People.com will "carry teen-focused stories that are branded as TeenPeople.com", Mark Golin, the editor of People.com explained. On the decision to merge the brands, he stated, "We've got traffic on TeenPeople, People is a larger site, why not combine and have the teen traffic going to one place?"
Competition for celebrity photos In a July 2006
Variety article,
Janice Min,
Us Weekly editor-in-chief, blamed
People for the increase in cost to publishers of celebrity photos:
People reportedly paid $4.1 million for photos of newborn Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, the child of
Angelina Jolie and
Brad Pitt. For the first decade or so, the feature appeared at uneven intervals. Originally awarded in the wintertime, it shifted around the calendar, resulting in gaps as short as seven months and as long as a year and a half, with no selection at all during 1994 (21 years later the magazine did select
Keanu Reeves to fill the 1994 gap, with runners-up including
Hugh Grant and
Jim Carrey). Since 1997, the dates have settled between mid-November and early December.
Denzel Washington was the first
racialized winner, and
Jonathan Bailey was the first openly
LGBTQ+ winner. Dates of magazine issues, winners, ages of winners at the time of selection, and pertinent comments are listed below. , former winners
John F. Kennedy Jr.,
Sean Connery, and
Patrick Swayze have since died. Kennedy and
David Beckham are the only non-entertainers to have won the accolade. }
Centerfold The magazine released its first Sexiest Man Alive
centerfold issue in 2025, with singer
Role Model being chosen.
Sexiest Woman Alive In December 2014,
People selected its first and only Sexiest Woman Alive,
Kate Upton.
Cindy Crawford and
Richard Gere were declared "Sexiest Couple of the Year" on October 19, 1993.
Cutest Baby Alive In 2019,
People selected its first Cutest Baby Alive,
Andy Cohen's son Benjamin. In 2020,
Anderson Cooper's son, Wyatt Morgan, was named the Cutest Baby Alive.
Most Intriguing People of the Year At the end of each year
People magazine famously selects 25 news-making individuals or couples who have received much media attention over the past 12 months and showcases them in a special year-end issue, the '25 Most Intriguing People of the Year'. This series of full-page features and half-page featurettes includes world leaders and political activists, famous actors and entertainers, elite athletes, prominent business people, accomplished scientists and occasionally members of the public whose stories have made an unusual impact in news or tabloid media.
100 Most Beautiful People Peoples 100 Most Beautiful People is an annual list of 100 people judged to be the most beautiful individuals in the world. Until 2006, it was the 50 Most Beautiful People.
Julia Roberts holds the record for most times named, with five.
Michelle Pfeiffer,
Jennifer Aniston, and
Kate Hudson have appeared twice. In 2020,
Goldie Hawn, Kate Hudson, and Hudson's daughter Rani made history becoming the first multigenerational cover stars of the Beautiful Issue. In addition, Hawn and her granddaughter concurrently became the oldest and youngest to cover the Beautiful Issue.
People Magazine Yearbook People Magazine Yearbook is an annual publication released by publishers of
People magazine, currently Meredith Corporation. although this gradually changed in the more recent editions. Since 2015, the "year" appeared in a more inconspicuous way on the front cover until the 2019 issue This issue did not mention any year conspicuously on the front page or the inner page but the front flap of the hardcover version of the magazine described Private Lives as "''People's
chronicle of an extraordinary year - 1990", clearly describing that the events covered inside were from 1990. Next Year, the 1992 sequel to Private Lives was published and it was called "Private Lives Volume II". The first page had an additional tagline that described the magazine as The Year in Review: 1991 Private Lives. In 1993, there was another change in the publication and also its cover title. The year was added on the cover for the first time and this annual issue was called "Private Lives 1993". The "Year" appeared in Bold on the front cover. The first page described the publication as Private Lives The Year in Review: 1992. Next year, in 1994, People Books released Private Lives 1994 with the first page that said Private Lives Year in Review: 1993. The year 1996 ushered in the single biggest change in the magazine title. The title was reworked and found a new moniker - It was called "People Yearbook 1995". And People Magazine Yearbook 1998 covered the events of the Year 1997. 2014 was the last year for this to happen. The 2014 yearbook covered events of 2013. In 2015, a shift happened in the magazine that changed for the first time the year it actually covered within its pages. Instead of covering the events of 2014, this issue covered the events of 2015 and arrived on the stands towards the end of 2015. To make the shift properly understood, the first page of this yearbook included a tagline "The Most Memorable Moments of 2015". With this move, People Magazine Yearbook changed its own 25-year-old tradition. This shift, however, resulted in the year 2014 never being covered by the People Magazine Yearbook and 2014 became the only year not to be covered since its inception in 1991. Since then, the People Magazine Yearbook has been covering events of the same year that are on the Front Page. Another typeface change was experimented for two years when People Magazine Yearbook 2013! and People Magazine Yearbook 2014! The list included Prince, David Bowie, Nancy Reagan, Alan Rickman, Doris Roberts, Muhammad Ali etc. The special edition could be accessed by flipping over the magazine. In November 2017, Meredith Corporation announced that it would acquire Time Inc. for $2.8 billion. The acquisition was completed on January 31, 2018. Time
Magazine, People
Magazine and also People Magazine Yearbook are now published by Meredith Corporation. The copyright of the 2018 Yearbook was described as belonging to Time Inc. Books, a division of Meredith Corporation and published by People Books, an imprint of Time Books. This issue included the tagline, "The Most Memorable Moments of'' 2018" on the cover. However, in the 2019 Yearbook, the copyright was described as belonging to Meredith Corporation, without any prominent tagline. The prominent bold writing of the "Year" on the front cover made a comeback with the 2020 Yearbook, along with a tagline saying "Our Extraordinary Year Together". The trend continued with the 2021 Yearbook, along with a tagline saying, "When We All Got Together Again". ==Television spinoffs==