Newsweek’s PR Gaffe: Princess Diana Cover

Newsweek’s Tina Brown went a stretch too far when she decided to publish What Princess Diana’s Life Might Look Like Now. You expect such articles from the likes of TMZ, from People, or from some no-name site, but not from a serious business publication like Newsweek. Diana at 50 is a joke, reads like a joke, and is disrespectful. A PR gaffe without precedent, that places Newsweek down there with the gossip magazines that would write just about anything for ratings. Recently we have seen a similar situation with Sophie of Wessex.

As Tina Brown is Newsweek’s editor-in-chief, the magazine cannot really blame anyone else for the monumental PR gaffe that brought a wave of negative media reviews and even more negative public comments.

“Speculating on the “what if” sex life of a dead woman is beyond the pale. I don’t care if Newsweek thought this was “edgy” and “controversial”, it was wrong, disrespectful, tacky, and tasteless,” wrote Idris Cold, Newsweek reader, in response to the article.

“The Diana cover is the most tasteless thing you’ve published in the last 50 years. It aptly caps your descent from a respected news source to a tabloid rag. Your lack of meaningful content had already convinced me to not renew my subscription. This issue just put the last nail in that coffin”, commented Wayne Lynn Daniel.

“Tacky, and yet another example of the line between sensationalism and journalism being blurred for the sake of selling more copies. Photoshopping a computer-aged dead woman into a picture next to her daughter in law is not a tribute,” added Suzanne J.

There are many things wrong with the aforementioned article, but none as puzzling as the cover proudly displayed by Newsweek. The cover (featured image), shows Diana and Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, on the cover of the July 4, 2011, issue of Newsweek magazine.

Inside the article, illustration shows Princess Diana holding an iPhone, re-tweeting the Dalai Lama, and having her own Facebook page, where her relationship status states “It’s confusing.”