Gossip magazines feature scandalous stories about the personal lives of celebrities. This genre of magazine flourished in North America in the 1950s. The title Confidential alone boasted a monthly circulation in excess of ten million, and it had many competitors, with names like "Whisper," "Dare," "Suppressed" and "Uncensored." These magazines included more lurid and explicit content than did the popular newspaper gossip columnists of the time, including tales of celebrity homosexuality and illegal drug use.

The large-circulation gossip magazines eventually gave way to supermarket tabloids, such as the National Enquirer, and to less scandal-oriented celebrity coverage in magazines like People and Us, though small-circulation publications that harken back to the '50s approach have continued to be published. The history of gossip magazines also includes a few eccentric titles that flaunted the usual rules of acceptable taste, such as the sexually explicit Hollywood Star of the 1970s.

Magazines