The Globe Buys Gary Coleman Death Photos

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The Globe Buys Gary Coleman Death Photos

Posted at 06/09/2010 by Staff 1 Comment

garycoleman2 The Globe has become the first news outlet to purchase the Gary Coleman death photos. The publication is reported to have paid $10,000.

We have decided not to post the pictures of Coleman here on this site, but for those of you who are curious, Mediatakeout.com has them HERE.

Rob Shuter over at Popeater.com, has written an article about how the move may put the publication on track to have that issue be the best-selling issue they’ve ever had but that it’s not without risks. Here is an excerpt:

Globe magazine’s tasteless decision to buy photographs of Coleman’s last moments alive for $10,000 could provide the tabloid with one of its best-selling issues ever.

“They are going to sell a crazy amount of magazines,” a source that has seen the images tells me. “Yes, it’s an ugly decision to run pictures of a man in his hospital bed minutes before he died, but dead celebrities sell.”

A shocking photo of Elvis, lying dead in his casket at Graceland, published in the National Enquirer in 1977 was the first time a dead celebrity had ever graced the cover. That issue went on to be the biggest selling issue the National Enquirer ever produced. And when OK! magazine paid over $500,000 for a photo of dead Michael Jackson in 2009, it sold alarmingly well. However, running such an image isn’t without its risks.

“Yes, you get one week of great sales, but forever on you are known as the magazine that will do anything to get people to buy it,” a weekly magazine editor-in-chief tells me. “It’s a desperate move that damages your brand in the long run,” which is why the pictures of Gary went for only $10,000. His ex-wife, Shannon Price, will get a cut of that sum.