OK! Weekly reportedly shelled out $500,000 to put the Michael Jackson death photo on its cover. As other leading magazines feature Michael Jackson photos in his prime, OK Weekly stood as a tabloid as it is supposed to be by showing the King of Pop in the last minutes of his life. In PDN Online, a source confirmed that the "British parent Northern & Shell paid the equivalent of roughly U.S. $500,000 for exclusive magazine rights to the photo in the US and UK".
OK! Weekly is banking on the huge sales for this issue to counteract some financial losses that their publication is suffering from early this year. OK! editorial director Sarah Ivers explained that the picture "captures the surprise and the upset and the moment of this breaking news story". They expect the cover to "provoke" readers into celebrating the man Michael Jackson was and "expose that he was an eccentric character who lived a very controversial life". We just hope his family and friends would not go up in arms for this controversially grim cover photo.
