WHY DID 'PEOPLE' - 'AND NOT ABC TELEVISION PARTNER 'US WEEKLY' - GET "THE BACHELOR" EXCLUSIVE?

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Jan 1, 2003

Byline: Michael Learmonth

THE ANSWER:

People says it won "The Bachelor" scoop (which ran in its December 2 issue) by convincing ABC executives it could put the cover story together in secret, spiriting "Bachelor" Aaron Buerge's betrothed, Helene Eksterowicz, off to a hotel in Philadelphia for a clandestine interview. Of course, this is just the kind of situation where you'd expect ABC to be in bed with corporate partner Us Weekly, not arch-rival People. (Disney, parent company of ABC, became 50 percent owner of Us in a 2001 deal, promising myriad collaborations between the network and the mag.) So, is People's big "Bachelor" scoop a sign that synergy between Us and ABC is fraying? Not at all, assures Us Weekly spokesman Stuart Zakim: "It went to People because we didn't publish that week." And People did. Zakim says Us published its "special double issue" on "Hollywood's Most Romantic Proposals" that week to give the staff a Thanksgiving break.