12 Reality Check

I have the first issues of some of the most successful magazines on the newstands today, all published within the last few years--O [Oprah], Real Simple and Lucky. Publishers are always looking for that new idea to replace the ones that are failing, and they look at the other media--like reality TV. So I think I‘ll add this one in while the topic is hot--by next year it may be gone (we should be so lucky).

This week I purchased the premiere issue, Winter 2004, of Reality Check published by Primedia. I never watch reality TV, but I’d have to be in a coma not to know how popular it is. The cover story is “The real Clay Aiken,” and the cover is removable to become a poster of Clay.

Only time will tell if this is a stand alone magazine or just a special edition of Soap Opera Digest. It has almost no ads and contains no editorial comment about the intention, so I looked at Primedia’s Circulation Management, March 16, 2004, and found

The premiere issue of Reality Check was launched as a single-copy stand-alone by Primedia in mid January 2004. 371,000 copies were distributed to supermarkets, specialty stores and mass-market retail stores in the US and Canada. If successful, another issue will follow soon.

From that story I learned that reality TV has been getting a lot of coverage in Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly, which of course, I wouldn’t have known. Editorial staff for Reality Check is from those Primedia publications.

Reality Check
Winter 2004, Premier Issue
ISSN (na)
Subject: Reality TV
Primedia Inc.
249 W. 17th Street
New York, NY 10011
$2.99
http://www.primedia.com/
Editorial Director: Lynn Leahey
Editor in Chief: Robert Schork
Publisher: Linda Vaughan