Kimye Issue of Vogue Didn't Sell Nearly as Well as 'Projected'

Guess what? With the Kim Kardashian/Kanye West issue of Vogue, the actual number of issues sold differs wildly from the “estimated” projections.

In fact, the number of actual issues sold may be half of the projected figure. At the end of April, Radar Online published a story in which a “magazine insider” claimed: “The projections are that Kim and Kanye will likely sell almost 500,000 copies.” Half a million copies.

But now, New York Post‘s veteran media industry reporter Keith J. Kelly has consulted with Josh Gary, the VP of Mag Net Data. The company uses scan information from wholesalers “that cover about 98 percent of the market.” Gary says:

“The trends for Kim K. are definitely better than the prior month with Rihanna, to the tune of 20 percent better… I’d argue that if you peg last year’s Michelle Obama at 269,000, [the Kimye] issue will net out around 250,000.”

FYI, a quarter of a million is a lot less than half a million. If Kim and Kanye’s issue sold 250,000, that is fewer issues than FLOTUS. Fewer issues than Beyoncé, whose March 2013 cover sold 355,000.

Kelly also contacted Condé Nast, of course:

Vogue spokeswoman Hildy Kuryk said, “We never comment on sales figures.”

The question is: Where do you think Radar got the 500k number? Who do you think was leaking “early estimates”? Who is this mysterious “magazine insider”? Hmm?