While it may seem obvious now, in the 1970s it was daring to part with even a pretense of newsworthiness and devote a magazine to nothing more than famous people and their lives. He named his idea the "People of the Week." … A lot of American magazines had gotten away from the personality story; they'd become more issue-oriented. We intended to reverse that idea with People.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 756