$2 Per Name Grants Jann Wenner Temporary Bragging Rights 36730

Jann Wenner’s circulation scheme to have Us Weekly hit its rate base comes at such an inopportune time. Well, inopportune time for him — he’s got two ill fellas to juggle. For us? It’s perfect timing to pounce on the tabloid while it’s down.

So here’s how it goes: Jann wants to bring Us‘ guaranteed circ to 1.85 million to stay competitive and/or bolster his ego. (You guess the more likely scenario.) Sadly, he doesn’t have that many real readers. So he writes a cheque to Hachette Filipacchi for the 409,000 names from Premiere magazine, which just folded, paying about $2 per name to drop them on Us’s roster. All this on the heels of a scramble to meet its previous 1.75 million rate base — a goal met by ramping up the number of “verified” copies, bringing the total to 1,751,709.

With Premiere’s readers, he’ll easily be able to hit his new target. So on to the next dilemma: Janice Min’s contract negotiations, which we hear are still on-going.