CBS to Launch Watch Magazine in 2006

Posted on August 26, 2005

The CBS Communications Group has announced it will publish a new quarterly magazine covering its televised entertainment, news and sports, as well as DVDs, theme parks and new media. The publication, titled Watch!, will include interviews, photos, previews and features of CBS talent and shows, as well as guides to travel, fashion and living the Hollywood lifestyle. Watch! will debut in January 2006.

The debut issue will feature interviews with Two and Half Men stars Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer, as well as photos of The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan's recent cross-country road expedition; CBS Sports' David Feherty talking golf and Pebble Beach with Criminal Minds star Thomas Gibson; a trip down memory lane with As the World Turns' Martha Byrne; first-person accounts from CBS News Correspondents Lesley Stahl and Lee Cowan on covering the biggest stories of the last 25 years, including the Reagan assassination attempt and last year's tsunami; an interview with How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris; and a talk with CBS News' John Roberts on traveling with the president on Air Force One.

Watch! will be distributed freely at CBS show tapings, Paramount Parks and through more than 200 CBS affiliates across the country, debuting with a 400,000 circulation. The magazine is being published by the CBS Communications Group, in association with McMurry, a custom publisher.

"This is a unique opportunity for us to leverage the access we have as a Network into a fun and insightful celebrity magazine that offers something no one else can -- an insider's perspective," said Gil Schwartz, Executive Vice President, CBS Communications Group. "We've assembled some of the most entertaining and compelling content about our talent and shows, and we're providing it free to the viewing public. Watch! Magazine is going to be a highly-readable, enjoyable publication that will strike a chord with TV lovers, as well as a public that's become grown fascinated by the celebrity life and culture."

Jeremy Murphy, Director of Editorial Services for the CBS Communications Group, will serve as Editor of the publication. Advertising sales, editorial support, design, production and distribution will be handled by McMurry.