George Magazine to Fold

By Stephen M. Silverman

Thursday June 11, 1998 12:00 AM EDT

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George, the magazine founded by John F. Kennedy Jr., will cease publication with the March issue, its parent corporation announced on Thursday. Its final issue will be a tribute to its late founder, who launched the publication five years ago, with model Cindy Crawford dressed as George Washington on its cover. From the start, critics wondered if the magazine could pull off the unlikely blending of celebrity and politics. For the first few years, the magazine seemed to get by on the charisma of the young Kennedy, but in the aftermath of his death in a plane crash in July of 1999, fortunes continued to sag at George. Hachette Filipacchi CEO Jack W. Kliger, whose company bought the Kennedy family's controlling interest in George last year, told The New York Times that even though the magazine's circulation had grown in the past year (under a new editor, Frank Lalli), there was no longer enough advertising support to continue the endeavor. The Associated Press quotes Kliger as saying that his company sunk $10 million in George last year. The news service also stated that the magazine's 39 staff members would receive severance packages.