Why Esquire Isn't Likely To Have John Edwards On Its Cover Again Anytime Soon

Senior staff at Esquire may have known as early as last summer that John Edwards' 2008 presidential bid was destined for failure — the August 2007 cover featuring the then-contender was its worst selling of the year, an analysis of magazine sales revealed.

Edwards is not alone in the worst-of-the-year department: GQ's January cover featuring Robert De Niro was its worst selling of 2007. Not surprisingly, the analysis shows that mens mags — in particular, GQ and Esquire — perform best when featuring scantily clad, beautiful women:

Angelina Jolie (July 2007) was the "woman Esquire loved" and Esquire readers love, as proven by her being the Hearst monthly's best-seller. (November 2007 Sexiest Woman Alive Charlize Theron doubtlessly sold very well, too.) And, at GQ, readers "took a close look" at best-seller Jessica Biel (July), who was Esquire's 2005 Sexiest..., and runner-up Jessica Alba (June).

Read the entire analysis here.

Comments

[SILVANUS]

11:45 AM on 04/02/2008

Esquire has some of the best homo-erotic full-page advertisements along with Details. Which, of course, is frivolous and shallow, but you get my point. Edwards, perhaps, needed a sex scandal attached to his history.

[okAcomputer]

10:24 PM on 04/01/2008

who cares, these aren't magazines, they're catalogs.

[iPolitics]

09:46 PM on 04/01/2008

Edwards would have had a shot in 4 years if he worked a little harder to get Kerry elected. All he had to do was carry his own state.

[peachfuzz]

08:55 PM on 04/01/2008

Rolling Stone is much better for politics than Esquire anyway.

Plus that cover sucks, the Newsweek cover was WAY better:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v220/kmmrky/jesleeper.jpg

Perhaps they could improve their mag for better sales.

[JuniorBug]

07:21 PM on 04/01/2008

The reason John Edwards didn't win is because we're a society who would write and read articles like this.

[pmorlan]

06:20 PM on 04/01/2008

Oh boy, another stupid article whose only purpose is to knock Edwards. I'm really not surprised seeing this frivilous article because during the primary the Huffington Post could always be counted on to knock Edwards with their substance free reporting. I guess some things never change.

[Roose]

05:48 PM on 04/01/2008

You mean the Breck Girl not good? No kidding.

[longislandlol]

05:04 PM on 04/01/2008

Obama sells magazines-- and so does Spitzer--- Edwards has no Esquire or GQ appeal---

[demlover1]

04:04 PM on 04/01/2008

Why Huffingtonpost felt the need to post this article is beyond me. I guess they got tired of trashing Hillary Clinton, so they thought they'd trash John Edwards instead. I don't get it. Huffington Post used to support all Democrats against Republicans. Now, they spend most of their time trashing one Democrat and another all so their favored Democrat can get into office--Barack Obama. It's too bad, because by being so biased, he will likely never win now in a general election.

[vat6948]

04:39 PM on 04/01/2008

Right on, demlover1 -- We don't eat our own !!!!!!

[MariaHopeful]

04:59 PM on 04/01/2008

In case you haven't noticed, they have been trashing Obama too. Take a survey of some of the headlines of late.

[TheRealist1]

06:31 PM on 04/01/2008

You are kidding, right? go ahead and say "April fool" so everyone can move on, ok.

[Alessan]

01:06 AM on 04/04/2008

No one is trashing Obama, he has been responsible for any negative press he has gotten, in other words he deserves whatever they say about him. Maybe he should
have been more up front with people, instead of going around telling people what Kerry and Edwards said four years ago," hope", he stole his agenda and never has come up with an original idea yet. Guilty white people feel they will be forgiven for the bad treatment of blacks in this country. Sorry but you all heard Rev. Wright, white people owe black people a decent life, black people think Obama may give them a chance. That's why he is popular, not for anything he has done, and black should know, nothing will change for them no matter who the President is. Obama will take his orders from the white dfemocratic insiders, responsible for him running running and doing so well in the campaign. He will be forever grateful, and the people of this country will suffer.

As for John Edwards, why don't the people who dislike him, just leave him be. He will
fade into time for those people. What has he done to these people is a mystery to me. Sounds like jealousy to me. Edwards is not a model, or actor so why did Esquire think they'd sell a lot of magazines, Obama was already the front runner when the issue came out.

[ObamaEdwards]

03:47 PM on 04/01/2008

Esquire used to be a fine magazine with great in-depth reporting and terrific short stories, plus some sexy fluff for men to look at. Over the past decade they've lost everything but the fluff. This just proves that Esquire readers only respond to T & A.

[MetalMarx]

03:39 PM on 04/01/2008

I quit caring what Esquire magazine thinks when they put Donald "Dummy" Rumsfeld on its cover a year or two ago. And get this, just the other day I received a subscription offer from Esquire: a whole year of magazines for $6.00 US. Yeah, they're doing really well. It's kind of a shame because I used to like the magazine. Even now, each issue usually has a good article or two, but most of the stuff in Esquire is piffle. I've no need to read piffle.

[MoeSart]

02:59 PM on 04/01/2008

John Edwards is smart and classy enough to not endorse anyone. He's staying out of it until there is a nom. Good for him.

He would make a great AG for some President. That won't be Obama, since Obama won't be President.

[stringer]

03:29 PM on 04/01/2008

And you think Elizabeth's gonna let him work for Hillary? Yeah, right. Elizabeth Edwards hates Hillary Clinton and has made no secret of it over the years, constantly reciting publically all of the choices Hillary has made she disagrees with. During the campaign there was a report that would leak out almost every day about how "dishonest" Elizabeth thought Hillary was or what Clinton decision she disagreed with that day. Sorry but no Clinton Administration will see John Edwards as AG, no matter how great of an idea that might be.

Now an Obama Administration is a different matter . . .

[DRPike]

03:41 PM on 04/01/2008

And when Obama is President will you keep your screen name?

[GeorgeP922]

02:58 PM on 04/01/2008

A stupid point, this is a reflection on their customers and America as a whole, had the cover had Chris Dodd, Obama, hell even John McCain 14 months before an election would have sold the same!

Am I missing something?

[Giordano Bruno]

02:47 PM on 04/01/2008

It's been quite sometime since I read the article. I had already decided he was my candidate. Interestingly, I rarely read Esquire, but I did buy that edition primarily to read about Mr. Edwards. I continue to believe that he was the best hope we had to defeat McCain, but neither the Mainstream media, nor voters who were voted for their gender/race over policy and vision, nor the corporate establishment found him suitable. I miss him, and despite reassurances from the Obama camp that I am welcome in his tent, I am still having problems with his muddled thinking on health care and his relationship with religious nuts (most especially Rev. McClurkin, the homophobe). I am going to vote for him if he is the nominee, but not with a lot of enthusiasm nor conviction. Giordy

[julia06]

02:24 PM on 04/01/2008

John Edwards may still be the best thing that ever happened to this country.

[jwarrener]

05:12 PM on 04/01/2008

Miles above the remaining candidates but because the media wanted to make it a race of firsts with Obama and Hillary he had no chance.

[MarkieBee001]

05:19 PM on 04/01/2008

HUH? Wow, I like John Edwards too. But he was the least experienced candidate of the entire bunch and had to apologize for every major vote he made.

[leapinggnome]

06:22 PM on 04/01/2008

at least edwards apologized for the vote to invade Iraq. It will be a cold day in hell before Hilary ever admits she was wrong or even misled. Maybe she was sleep deprived then too...