After shaking the global music industry, BTS is also rewriting the history of American Magazines. On the 19th, CNN spotlighted the massive increase in the volume of paper magazines sold as BTS appeared on their covers.
According to CNN, magazines that used BTS as cover models have seen their sales soar more than usual. The weekly magazine Variety printed 30% more than usual for their Grammy special, which used BTS as their cover story. Variety also ended up selling a digital edition of the magazine. Meanwhile, the WSJ Magazine reprinted their November issue, which is the first time they’ve reprinted a magazine ever after its first publication 10 years ago. CNN explained that they reprinted due to the “overwhelming demand” for them. Though BTS is a group, WSJ printed each of the seven members as cover models, and fans purchased every different version even if the magazine’s contents were the same.
Esquire, one of America’s leading men’s magazines, is famous for having the most influential figures of the time on their covers. It is reported that while they usually sell about 20k copies in the U.S., their winter edition with BTS as a cover model has been sold 20k more copies in the U.S. alone. An additional 34k copies were sold in South Korea and 2k more in Japan.
Esquire Editor-In-Chief Michael Sebastian told CNN Business, “honestly, I have to say that I was overwhelmed by the response to it.” Variety’s music editor Shirley Halperin also disclosed that “it was a windfall of revenue during a very difficult year.”
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