The Heartbreaking Death Of People Magazine Founder Richard Stolley

Richard Stolley helped establish "People" magazine in 1973, thus cementing his legacy as a journalist and media giant. Stolley later explained why the magazine works so well. "The one thing that I've always wanted to say, when we started, I said, this is not a celebrity magazine," he once said in an interview (via People). "This is personality journalism" 

He continued by explaining that the goal of People was to cover stories from all over the world about, well, people. "And we will be doing stories all over the world, which we did and still do, and it will be on all people in all walks of life," he said. "Some will be well known, some will not. Our motto was, 'extraordinary people doing ordinary things, and ordinary people doing extraordinary things.' And the formula worked then and still does."

The magazine's first test issue, featuring Elizabeth Taylor and her then-husband, Richard Burton (via Biography) on the cover, was a massive hit. Stolley was crowned editor when the magazine officially launched in 1974.