People magazine is not commenting at this time on its plans — or lack of plans — for special Michael Jackson coverage. Whether or not People magazine publishes anything special, its Time Inc. sibling, Time, has decided to go ahead with a “special commemorative edition,” to be published on Monday, said a spokesman in New York, Daniel Kile. The current issue of Time, which came out on Friday with a cover date of July 6, closed on Wednesday, a day before Mr. Jackson died.
Details of the special, additional issue are being worked out, Mr. Kile said. The cover price will be $5.99, a bit more than the regular Time cover price of $4.95. Time will also publish its next regularly scheduled weekly issue, Mr. Kile said, which will have a cover date of July 13 and come out next Friday.
Time Inc. is part of Time Warner.
Two competitors of People in the weekly celebrity magazine market, In Touch Weekly and Life & Style Weekly, have no plans for special issues. “As with any tragic, breaking news story, information continues to develop by the minute,” a spokeswoman, Julie Strider, wrote in an e-mail message. “Consequently, upcoming issues of In Touch Weekly and Life & Style Weekly will feature in-depth coverage of Michael Jackson that both reports the news and commemorates his legacy.”
The current issues of In Touch and Life & Style, dated July 6, reached newsstands on Wednesday. The next issues, dated July 13, would arrive next Wednesday.
In the meantime, In Touch and Life & Style are also sending reporters e-mail messages with updated developments on Mr. Jackson’s death. The most recent, from In Touch, carried this subject line: “Elizabeth Taylor Collapses In Grief Over Michael Jackson’s Death.” In Touch and Life & Style are owned by the Bauer Publishing Group division of the German publisher Bauer.