So the Fergie toe-sucking incident put Woman's Day on top, according to the enthralling battle royale played out in Paper Giants on the ABC. But did you know it actually happened a year earlier than the show claimed? AdNews dug through the archives to find out.
The drama being played out on the excellent ABC Paper Giants: Magazine Wars series between Woman's Day editor Nene King and her nemesis New Idea editor Dulcie Boling had built to an epic rivalry by the time the infamous Fergie toe-sucking pics hit the newsstands in August 1992.
At the end of the first half of the mini-series (yes, spoilers galore but you should've watched it by now!), King had finally bested Boling by buying the Fergie pics out from under her for $150,000. The circulation numbers came in, Woman's Day had outsold New Idea. It was a moment many years in the making as King had closed the 400,000 gap between the two titles.
But a trawl through the AdNews archives showed Woman's Day actually overtook New Idea in May 1991. It's okay, we'll forgive the production for the errant timeline, it did make for better TV drama. And there but for the grace of God go us all.
The front page of our 31 May 1991 issue proclaimed “Day tops Dulcie” and in the first paragraph: “Woman's Day has overtaken long-time rival New Idea to become the largest-selling weekly magazine in the country and only the third to average more than one million copies sold each issue.”
Later on the book, the ABC circulation results showed Woman's Day had achieved 1,013,066 copies in the audit period while New Idea was close behind at 1,003,233 copies.
The second part of Paper Giants: Magazine Wars will air this Sunday night on the ABC. It was produced by Southern Star Entertainment. And you should watch it.
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