Wal-Mart Shelves Will Have Fewer Mags This Week

There was an interesting article in today's New York Post about a brewing battle between Wal-Mart and the country's biggest magazine publishers.

Chaos from the ongoing magazine wholesaler war has officially arrived, and it looks likely that many celebrity weeklies won't be heading to many local Wal-Marts this week.

Wal-Mart, the single-biggest magazine retailer in the country, will be without copies of People, Sports Illustrated and Time. They will also not have Bauer Publications' In Touch and Life & Style, and American Media-owned Star and National Enquirer.

While it's too early to know how many of Wal-Mart's 4,200 US stores will be affected, it appears a majority of them will be.

A Wal-Mart spokeswoman confirmed that some stores are expected to be without magazines this week, but did not offer specifics on the titles or how many stores will be affected.

At the heart of the mess is a standoff between magazine publishers and two of the country's largest wholesalers, Anderson News and Source Interlink Cos., both of which on Sunday began imposing a 7-cent surcharge on every copy they deliver to retailers.

Both Time Inc. and Bauer said they won't pay the surcharge.

"You basically have the whole industry in a standoff," said one publishing executive.

There are four big national wholesalers: Anderson News, which is run by Charles Anderson; Source Interlink, which is controlled by billionaire Ron Burkle; News Group, owned by Jimmy Pattison; and Hudson News, which is owned by Jimmy Cohen. The latter two companies indicated they wouldn't impose the hike.

Source Interlink publishes both Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly.

I asked Digest Editorial Director Lynn Leahey if the magazine would be impacted and she said, "We are working to get our issues on the newsstand, but if anyone has a problem they can get a digital version – the exact same as print except it’s online. The link for subscriptions is http://www.zinio.com/gncoffer?issn=SOPD-1234&of=ZH01&ns=usa. If someone wanted to buy just one issue, they could go to http://www.zinio.com/gncsingles?issn=SOPD-1234&ns=usa."

With Eden Riegel and Tamara Braun on the cover of the Feb. 17 issue, it is a must buy.