People magazine started back in 1974 as a spin-off from the page known back then as the ‘People' page in Time magazine. A huge success, the magazine evolved and issued a Spanish version known as People en Espanol (1996) and Teen People (1998);however, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006.Subscribers to this magazine received Seventeen Magazine for the rest of their issues in exchange. only to embody the latter into the main magazine after 2006, because of low circulation and a decrease in advertising pages.

The magazine introduced a separate issue called People Stylewatch, an extension to the original publications hugely popular Stylewatch column (2002); because of its success, the Stylewatch issue was circulating ten times a year after 2007.

The magazine has a large US reader base of nearly 4 million, reaching $1.5 billion in revenues (2006) and winning the ‘Magazine of the year' title by Advertising age in 2005. The people subscription volume is one of the main funnels of success, currently expanding to countries outside North America (Australia under the Title 'Who')

The magazine has largely popular Web site; monthly traffic is nearly 30 million visitors; 15 million come from the US and then rest from around the world. The readers are mainly women between the age of 35 and 55, mostly without children (70%) and an average annual income of $30-$60K. More than half of the visitors have college education, while nearly 31% have no college education.

People magazine runs special issues; the ‘fifty most beautiful' (now 100 most beautiful people) is a special annual issue the gives the award to one of the most beautiful men or women listed. The first person to be hosted on the fifty most beautiful people special issue was Michelle Pfeiffer. There is also the ‘Hottest Hollywood bachelors' issue.

People is also known for its special interest in celebrity babies; it is considered as a premier source for seeing newborn babies for actors and other famous people. Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Samantha Harris and many others have agreed to have photographs of their newborn babies published in People.

Recently, "Dancing with the Stars" host Samantha Harris decided to share the news of her pregnancy with People, even before she announced it on her own show. Harris said she "ideally wanted a prestigious magazine to be the one to break it," Harris tells FBLA. " People breaks a lot of baby news and seems to be a reliable source. Plus, I've never had a chance to be in People, and it was nice that they wanted to break it.

One of the most popular features of People is the ‘Sexiest man alive'. It started in 1985, featuring Mel Gibson and continues every year (2008s sexiest man alive was Hugh Jackman). The oldest person featured was Sean Connery, and the person that made it twice was George Clooney.