Obama and Family in magazine covers

Just hours after the elections, two of the most successful brands — People and Us Weekly — stocked newsstands with issues that featured the president-elect on the cover, while the competition went with more ordinary celebrity fare. According to early sales figures, People and Us made the right call.

Us Weekly, according to those estimates, could sell more than a million copies and People is on pace to sell nearly two million issues, if not more. (A rep for Us won’t comment on exact numbers, but confirms the issue sold “better than average, extremely well,” and a rep for People says that “early indicators indicate it will be one of the year’s top sellers.

People, which usually goes to press on Tuesdays, moved its deadline to Wednesday to accommodate the election, and Us went to press on Monday as usual.

While the move by Us might seem like a gamble, the story inside did indicate that the election wasn’t over yet. A rep for Us said that the decision was made because “our readers are very engaged in the election process, and we decided it was worth it (no matter who won) to do (the Obama cover) as a great human interest story.”

OK!, which ran a cover with Suri Cruise, sold fewer than 300,000 copies, according to some tracking, and Life & Style and In Touch remained steady.

From: msnbc.com