Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly

Publisher	Time Inc.
Founded	1990
Country	United States of America
Language	English

Entertainment Weekly is a magazine published by Time Inc. in the United States which focuses on publicizing and reviewing information relating to movies, television, music, books, and popular culture. Entertainment Weekly also runs [1], one of the top websites for entertainment information.

Unlike celebrity-focused publications US Weekly, People Magazine, or In Touch Weekly, EW's primary concentration is on entertainment media. Entertainment Weekly was successful upon launch, finding a target readership quickly in the popular entertainment field. 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 analyses 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 took Time Inc., then called Time Life, to prove that Americans were interested enough to read about such issues in a weekly publication.

The first edition of Entertainment Weekly was published in 1990 (k.d. lang was on the first cover), and the website was launched in 1998. By 2003, the magazine's weekly circulation averaged 1,700,000 copies per week (Source: Magazine Publishers of America). In March 2006, EW's graphics and layout were changed to reflect a more modern look. This took place under the direction of the magazine's current managing editor Rick Tetzeli. The website, under managing editor Jay Woodruff, serves as an archive for interviews, columns and photos.

Typical Content

File:Firstew.jpg

Cover for the February 16, 1990 cover of Entertainment Weekly; the first issue. Featured on the cover is k.d. lang.

Entertainment Weekly follows a typical magazine format by featuring a letters to the editor and table of contents in the first few pages, while also featuring advertisements. While many ads are unrelated to the entertainment industry, the majority of ads are typically related to up-and-coming television, film, or music events.

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

• Official site