Jul 7, 2011 07:42 GMT  ·  By
As popular as he is, Justin Bieber doesn’t sell magazines, figures indicate
   As popular as he is, Justin Bieber doesn’t sell magazines, figures indicate

One would expect to see a significant boost in sales if one gets Justin Bieber, the most successful and popular pop star of today, on the cover of a magazine. Not only does this not happen, but sales actually go down for the issues with The Biebs on the cover, new reports suggest.

Some of the biggest publications got Bieber to pose for the cover, hoping that the issues in question would sell like hot cakes, so one can only imagine the surprise when said issues ranked among the worst selling that year.

It’s happened to Vanity Fair, People and even Teen Vogue, all of which took a serious hit whenever they put Justin on the cover, reports cited by the Daily Mail indicate.

This is very surprising, especially since we’re talking about a pop star who can literally sell anything – a male pop star who came out with his own range of nail polish for the ladies, and, despite media ridicule, sold out in a matter of hours.

“February’s Vanity Fair, which featured the 17-year-old on the cover, is set to become the worst-selling issue for the magazine in 12 years,” the Mail writes.

“According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) Rapid Report, it sold just 246,000 copies, around 100,000 fewer than the average number of magazines sold each month,” the same publication reports.

The other two magazines named above also experienced a sharp drop in sales when their respective Bieber issues came out.

Teen Vogue, for instance, saw sales with 12 percent smaller with its October 2010 Bieber issue, while People magazine took an even bigger hit, with a 25 percent drop for the April 2010 issue, which went on to become the worst selling of the year.

“Who knew 12-year-olds didn’t buy magazines?” a Vanity Fair spokesperson is quoted as saying.

That doesn’t explain, though, while the same 12-year-oldds who don’t buy magazines can afford to buy everything else Justin Bieber-related, from nail polish to fragrance, books and other merchandise.

“Some reports also blame his gender, explaining that female stars generally shift magazines faster than men. A report from online media publication MIN showed that all of Vanity Fair’s highest-selling issues in 2010 had women on the cover,” the Daily Mail notes.