How ‘social media footprint’ influences magazine covers

Step 1: Put Jennifer Aniston’s face on your magazine cover.

Step 2: Put copies of those magazines in places where people buy magazines.

Step 3: Collect a profit.

It’s not so easy these days. Adweek reports that People magazine’s managing editor Larry Hackett thinks it’s a bit harder.

“The era of the A-List movie star is over,” he recently said. “I will confess, there were times in the ’90s when we put people on the cover because they were huge stars, but the stories weren’t exactly scintillating. Now, the bar is higher. … People need a narrative arc.”