Making its debut at news stands and magazine racks across the nation is "Sarah Palin: The Untold Story" -- an unauthorized, single-issue magazine. For a price of $8.99 retail, the Paliniste get a 100-page glossy magazine which claims to tell "The Untold Story" of the former governor "...in her own words!" Those words apparently deal with the issues of faith, family and freedom, as those three topics are highlighted in bright colored blocks on the cover.Potential purchasers are further enticed by the promise of "100 pages of MUST SEE photos," and the heady question at the bottom of the cover asks, "Can she save America?"
Published by international marketing firm IMG and Imagine That Publishing, the Sarahzine went on sale in mid-January, and it will be available through April 30. The volume's print run, according to the publisher, is "in the hundreds of thousands," and they say that it has been selling well."The genesis of it was really simple," said Steve LeGrice, the publisher and editor of Imagine That. "We're up here in New York, and there was clearly this huge enthusiasm for Sarah Palin, and at the same time all the people in the media world were sitting around scratching their heads" about how people could support her.The editor claims that the magazine includes family photos of Sarah Palin never before published by a magazine and purchased from private sources.
"What we decided to do is put out a magazine all in her own words," he said -- a magazine "without any opinion or anything added in."
"This is an independent project," said LeGrice, who has never met Palin but says he "would very much like" to. "We are not endorsed by her at all."
So what does the first woman to be the vice presidential candidate of the Republican Party think of the glossy magazine devoted entirely to her? The Palin camp has so far declined comment.
- JP
