Rock and Roll legend Mick Jagger leads the Rolling Stones during their concert at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne April 13, 2006. Jagger is one of many celebrities profiled in 'Rolling Stone's' 1000th issue. - REUTERS
LOS ANGELES (Reuters):
ROLLING STONE founder Jann Wenner has assembled 154 of his best friends on the bold cover of the 1,000th issue of his pop-culture magazine, which hits newsstands this week.
The hefty volume boasts a 3-D lenticular attachment featuring a Sgt. Pepper's-style collage of some of the biggest names in music, film, TV and literature of the last four decades.
A few world leaders also made the cut, but not President George W. Bush, the subject of the cover of No. 999, which asked if he was the worst president in history.
STORIED HISTORY
Wenner told Reuters the issue has been in the planning stage since last summer, with printing on the cover starting in January.
The cover cost about $1 million to produce, with the expense offset by a $2 increase in the cover price to $5.95, and "a huge amount" of advertising, including Target Stores' own lenticular image on the back.
Inside, the magazine revels in its storied history, and spotlights its 100 greatest covers, spanning Wenner's 1967 interview with John Lennon in the first issue, through rapper Kanye West's Jesus Christ pose in issue 993 this past February.
"What other magazines are there that I want to see a hundred covers of? That I could look at a hundred of their best covers and go, 'Wow! That was our times ... those are brilliant ... that band meant something to me'," Wenner said.
But the magazine is more than a forum for pretty faces and the work of such photographers as Annie Leibovitz, Baron Wolman and Herb Ritts.
VIEW FOR AWARD
Writers included Hunter S. Thompson, P.J. O'Rourke and Tom Wolfe, and virtually every pop culture notable sat down for an interview: Lennon, Mick Jagger, Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix, all the way down to Nick Lachey in issue 999.
Rolling Stone will vie for three National Magazine awards on May 9, with Wenner's interview with U2 singer Bono nominated in the profile writing category.
At 60, Wenner said he remains very involved in the magazine's direction and strategy. But he does not control every page as Hugh Hefner still does at Playboy.
Rolling Stone's audited total paid circulation stood at 1.3 million in the six months to December 2005, up by about 34,000 copies from the year-ago period.
But newsstand sales, where the profit margins are higher, fell by about 5,700 copies to 128,580 in the same period.
