In January, newsstand sales hit 421,000, up 25.3 percent from last year, with a Victoria Beckham cover. In February, with Jessica Alba's cover, things dropped to 375,000, but that was still 15.7 percent better than last year. And then March’s Amy Adams cover began a downward spiral, with newsstand plummeting to 285,000, down 34.8 percent from last year.
Then came April’s Natalie Portman cover, followed by May’s Madonna cover, which “tanked,” and June’s Rihanna cover, “another disaster.”
And this month’s Mariah Carey cover? An absolute mess, says a source. Among the problems: Editors had trouble scoring clothes from the designers.