OK! Magazine is going through a big overhaul in which they fired a bunch of people including their editor earlier this month and are trying to become more lifestyle focused in order to stand out from competing celebrity glossies like Us Weekly and People. They’ve hired consultants and marketing experts in an attempt to crack the market. Publisher Lori Burgess said they’re “working hard to enhance our offering to both the consumer and entertainment community – further delineating our brand from the competition.” In an internal e-mail published by Gawker, a consultant asked OK! staffers to “pitch one non-news celebrity lifestyle cover package” in three sentences.

The result seems to reveal how OK! is grasping at straws and bad ideas while trying to redefine their brand. They’ve run covers this month featuring Twilight, The Biggest Loser and The Hills. Their latest cover highlights lesser-known High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale as if her lifestyle is something to aspire to. It looks more like Seventeen than OK!

On the opposite end of the spectrum is OK! magazine, and their baffling choice of Ashley Tisdale for the cover. It’s great that Tisdale has a “hot boyfriend, new album, and rockin’ body,” but she’s not relevant enough to be a newsstand success. Moreover, she looks vaguely like Ashlee Simpson in the photo, and Simpson happens to be in a cover chip — the net result is just confusing.

OK!’s sales are down considerably; several sources say the struggling weekly sold only 310,000 copies last week (it was selling in the 500,000 range this time last year). Tisdale is not going to help boost the mag’s profile, especially during this transition period in design and staffing. There’s been a rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic feel to the magazine in recent weeks. I’m pretty sure the sound I just heard was the captain calling for the lifeboats.

[From MSNBC's The Scoop]

I like OK! and hope they hang in there, but I have to admit that I only get three tabloids a week and OK! is not among them. The few times I’ve read it there weren’t many quotable stories I could use. It doesn’t seem like Ashley Tisdale has enough fans to help OK! move copies, but maybe they worked out a deal with her for the coverage. Cover Awards says this issue will be a disaster for OK! and that they should never run a cover in which the celebrity is so unknown that you have to print her name big like that for the readers. They were probably better off with the Brangelina covers. As much as people protest that they’re sick of the BS triangle stories there’s a very good reason that the tabloids continue to run them. We know who they are and many of us have strong feelings about them.

The current issue of US Weekly features “Secrets of the New Power Girls” on the cover and has details inside about teen sensations like Miley Cyrus, Ashley Tisdale, Vanessa Hudgens and Rihanna. There’s a cute inset article in which Vanessa and Ashley, stars of the mega hit Disney special High School Musical, dish about their friendship. They say they love shopping and going to pilates classes together and that they are just good friends without any kind of rivalry that’s so common in Hollywood:

You two are super-close. What makes your bond so strong?
Ashley: I call her my twin sister. She’s always there for me. Some people are really competitive; we’re not. We’re really supportive of each other. You don’t find that a lot in this business.
Vanessa: We were never competitive in any way, shape or form. We completely understand each other. She’s a lot of fun, and she’s just grounded.

What do you like to do when you hang out together?
Vanessa: What do girls like to do together? Shop!
Ashley: Vanessa took me to get my first pair of Christian Louboutins. I love them!

Do you ever share clothes?
Vanessa: We totally do! It’s awesome. I still have my Uggs at her house. I’m like, “I need them back!” she’s like, “I can’t find your other show.”

What else do you share?
Vanessa: We go to pilates a lot. We just went this morning, and I’m really sore right now.

[From US Weekly, print edition, February 4, 2008]

It’s refreshing that they talk about having fun shopping together and going to pilates. Ashley Tisdale is 22 and of age to drink, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen her at a Hollywood club or bar, and she would be welcome at the hottest places. Although Vanessa is just 19 she probably would be able to sneak into some clubs, but it doesn’t seem like she’s even tried. Hudgens had that naked photo scandal but the pictures weren’t that provocative and just featured her nude standing around. Overall these two have been good examples of how to have a relatively normal young adult life in the spotlight, and it seems like that’s what US is focusing on in the light of all the public problems that the Spears girls and some other former child stars have been facing recently.

US also has separate interviews with best friends Vanessa and Ashley. Vanessa reveals that she doesn’t like her littlest fans following her around and that helps her realize she’s too young for marriage and children:

Though she’s dating fellow HSM sensation Zac Efron, 20, don’t expect wedding bells any time soon. “I’m way too young,” says the star… And forget about kids. “Right now, I do not like kids at all,” she says. “I love my fans and everything, but when you have little kids following you around all day, it’s like, ‘Oh, God, kids!’ Maybe when I get older that will change.”

[From US Weekly, print edition, February 4, 2008]

Vanessa says that one of the prices of fame is that she can’t wear casual clothing outside the house anymore. She wishes she could schlup around in sweats, but says she doesn’t “want to be caught wearing a nasty old shirt!”

In Ashley’s interview she reveals that she’s excited about a new Barbie doll of herself that’s coming out. She already has an HSM dolll, and says of the upcoming Barbie that “This one really looks like me!” She says her “face is 200 percent [sic] better now” after her nose job “to fix a deviated septum.” US also has a nice blurb about how Ashley met Celine Dion, who told her “Thank you for being such a positive role model for my son!” Ashley is currently dating backup dancer Jared Murillo, and is at work recording her second CD.

Ashley and Vanessa will next appear together in High School Musical 3: Senior Year, which is currently in pre-production and is scheduled to come out in theaters on October 24, 2008.

Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale are shown on 11/19/07 at the High School Musical 2 DVD Premiere, thanks to PRPhotos.