# Us Weekly Publication: Us Weekly | §10.3 > **Where this publication overrides General Guidelines:** Headlines follow a **sister-rule** across onpage / promo / SEO with shared keywords and front-loaded topic or celebrity name—a structural requirement with no General Guidelines equivalent. **Bold all celebrity names** in body copy and link them over their tag pages where available—neither requirement appears in General Guidelines. **Numerals (not spelled-out numbers)** in heds and H2s. **Single quotes (not double)** in heds and H2s. **No periods, no ampersands, no Oxford / serial commas** anywhere. **Em dashes and ellipses get spaces on both sides**—matches AP per ap-compatible-quick.md + ap-compatible-condensed.md (restated for emphasis; Woman's World is the AMI title that deviates with no-space em dashes). **Couples, pairs, and duos take plural verbs**—a unique grammatical convention not shared with other AMI titles. **Months always spelled out in full**—deviates from AP six-or-more-letter abbreviation rule. ***Us* italicized with capital U whenever the word appears as a brand nod**. **Every story uses H2 prose-paragraph sections**—never "Key Facts" bullet-list summaries. **Quotes reproduced exactly and in full**—no mid-sentence truncation; censored-asterisk profanity preserved verbatim. **Headlines 80–100 characters.** **Output within ~15% of target word count.** The reference hierarchy is Us Weekly Style Supplement → *Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary* 11th Edition → *AP Stylebook* → *Chicago Manual of Style* → *Words Into Type*. Text in **red** throughout this page marks anything that overrides or goes beyond the General Guidelines. --- ### Publication Overview Us Weekly is a celebrity news and pop-culture mass-market publication. The site covers entertainment, reality TV, royals, music, fashion, and beauty for a celebrity-engaged general audience. Coverage runs from breaking-news fast turns to longer features, with a heavy reliance on celebrity-tag-page taxonomy and recognizable celebrity-driven headlines. --- ### Our Reader Us Weekly serves a celebrity-news-engaged general reader, women-skewing across a broad age range. The reader is fluent in pop-culture vocabulary, scrolls fast, and rewards content that names the celebrity up front, gets to the point, and treats them as already informed about the personalities involved. - **Mindset:** Knowing, conversational, in on the joke - **Reading context:** Mobile-first scrolling; competing with social feeds for attention - **Decision driver:** Recognizable names + clear value or new information in the first eight words - **Tolerance:** Low for padded leads, formal phrasing, or context the reader already has - **Engagement signal:** Tag-page click-throughs—celebrity names function as both content and navigation > **Note:** This persona is inferred from the source style materials and pop-culture-vocabulary signals throughout the style supplement. Editor sign-off recommended before treating it as authoritative. --- ### Voice and Tone Conversational, knowing, and pop-culture-fluent. The voice treats the reader as already familiar with the personalities and lets the news land without preamble. It is not academic, not corporate, and not snarky-mean—but it is allowed to be playful, alliterative, and pop-vocabulary-rich. - **Front-load value.** Lead with the celebrity name and the news. Background and context come after. - **Keep sentences scannable.** Most should fit one breath. Em dashes and parentheses are fine for asides, but avoid stacking them. - **Use plain modern vocabulary.** Pop-culture coinages (e.g., "frenemy", "glow-up", "showmance", "mashup") are welcome where they read naturally; archaic or stiff alternatives are not. - **Trust contractions—selectively.** "It's" is OK. **Avoid** "we'd", "you'll", "you'd", "must've", "what'd". Always write out "he has" / "she has" / "who has" rather than contracting them. - **Fix bad contractions even in quoted speech**—e.g., "what're" should be rewritten as "what are". --- ### Headlines (H1, SEO, Promo) **(REQUIRED)** **Sister-rule:** the onpage headline, promo headline, and SEO title must resemble each other structurally and share the same keywords. They are siblings, not three independent headlines. **Example:** - **Onpage:** What Happened to Nancy Guthrie? Everything to Know About Her Disappearance as Search Continues - **Promo:** What Happened to Nancy Guthrie? Everything to Know About Disappearance - **SEO:** What Happened to Nancy Guthrie? Everything to Know Amid Search **Formatting requirements:** - Topic or celebrity name front-loaded—the first eight words carry the most weight - **Length: 80–100 characters**—confirmed by Us Weekly editorial and SEO teams. Aim for 80 minimum, 100 maximum. For roundup heds combining multiple topics, capture a single unifying theme; do not list individual topics separated by commas - **Numerals in heds and H2s, not spelled-out numbers**—e.g., "Has 4 Kids With 3rd Ex-Husband", "Top 10", "No. 5" - **Single quotes in heds and H2s**—use for TV show + film titles in heds (italics are body-copy-only) - **No periods in heds** - **No ampersands in heds**—write "and"; ampersands are reserved for taglines, bylines, reporting credits, and trademarked or official company names (e.g., R&B, A&R) - **SEO heds in title case**—not lowercase - "1st" / "2nd" in heds (vs "first" / "second" in body)—exceptions: "first date", "first love", "first time" - Em dashes get spaces on both sides if used; avoid two sets of em dashes in one headline --- ### H2 Subheads **(REQUIRED)** - Title case - Include keywords—drawn from search intent or related queries - Written as complete phrases or questions—not single-word labels - Numerals (matching headline rule) - Single quotes (matching headline rule) **Examples:** - Nancy Guthrie's Daughter Savannah Guthrie Speaks Out After Kidnapping - When Was Nancy Guthrie Last Seen? - Detectives Unveil New Evidence in Nancy Guthrie Kidnapping Case **Article structure (required):** - Every Us Weekly CSA story uses H2 section format. **Never "Key Facts" bullet-point format.** - Each H2 subhead contains the subject's full name plus a relevant keyword or context descriptor - Each H2 section is followed by **full prose paragraphs**—not bullets or numbered lists - The article must lead with a substantive intro paragraph before the first H2 ✅ `## Pete Davidson Reflects on His Sobriety Struggles` ❌ `## Key Facts About Pete Davidson` ❌ `## Background` --- ### Body Copy Conventions #### Brand Italicization - **Italicize *Us* with a capital U** whenever the word "us" appears in copy—a nod to the brand. ✅ "Travis gave *Us* a little hope it could happen one day." ❌ "Travis gave us a little hope…" - **Italicize the full publication name *Us Weekly*** in body copy. ✅ "*Us Weekly* has reached out for comment." ❌ "Us Weekly has reached out…" #### TV Show and Film Titles - **In headlines: single quotation marks**—not italics. ✅ Stars of 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' React… ❌ Stars of *The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills*… - **In body copy: italics**—not quotation marks of any kind. ✅ She rose to fame on *Laguna Beach*. ❌ She rose to fame on "Laguna Beach". #### Celebrity Names - **Bold celebrity names** in body copy - Link tag pages over names where available—search "[celebrity name] Us Weekly" to find a tag page - Strip "Knowles" from Beyoncé; "Norwood" from Brandy (unless full name is referenced); "Combs, Sean 'Diddy'" → just "Diddy" on second reference; nicknames in quotes in middle position for first mention (e.g., Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi) - "Markle" or "Duchess of Sussex" on second reference for royals stories; "Markle" otherwise - **Name references per H2 section:** use first and last name on the **first reference** within each H2 section. Last-name-only is acceptable on subsequent references within that section. Reality stars may be referred to by first name only; when in doubt, default to last names after first full reference #### Em Dashes and Ellipses - **Em dashes get spaces on both sides**—matches AP (which uses spaces per ap-compatible-quick.md + ap-compatible-condensed.md); restated for emphasis. Woman's World is the AMI title that deviates with no-space em dashes - Avoid two sets of em dashes in one sentence - **Ellipses:** space, period, space, period, space, period, space. If preceded by a complete sentence, end the sentence with a period first #### Numbers - Spell out 1–9 in body copy; numerals for 10+ - Numerals always for sports scores (even 9 or below): "Phillies won 4-3" - "1st" / "2nd" in heds (per headline rule) - Decades: '80s or 1980s - Year ranges: 1993 to 1998, or 1993–1998 (en dash); avoid deleting the first two digits—prefer "1991-93" over "'91-'93" - Heights: 5-foot-6, 6-foot - Weight (people): "8 pounds, 4 ounces"; "An 8 pound, 4 ounce child." For objects, recipes, and display type, "lbs" and "oz" are permitted - Percent: spell out, never % - Time: "a.m." / "p.m." lowercase with periods; use PST / EST / PDT / EDT as appropriate; "10 a.m." not "10:00 a.m." - Sizes: numerals—"size 0", "size 2" - Millions: numerals with "million"—"3 million" - Phone numbers in letter form (800-BUY-THIS): convert to numerals; hyphen between area code and number #### Dates and Months - **Always spell out months in full.** Us Weekly does **not** follow the AP convention of abbreviating months with six or more letters. ✅ "She spoke about the breakup in September." ❌ "She spoke about the breakup in Sept." - **Date format depends on recency of the reference:** | Context | Format | Example | |---|---|---| | Happened today or this week | Day of week + Month + Date | Monday, April 27 | | Happened earlier in the current year | "in [Month]" | in April | | From a previous year | Month + Year | December 2023 | | Evergreen quote attribution (sourced from prior year) | Full month + year phrasing | in a December 2023 interview | - Do not include the current year for recent references unless needed to distinguish from a prior year - Do not output standalone year-only dates ("in 2024") when a month can be identified #### Quote Integrity - Reproduce quotes **exactly and in full**. Never truncate mid-sentence - Do **not** cut a quote with `…` to meet a word-count target - Do **not** paraphrase inside quotation marks - If a quote contains profanity censored with asterisks in the source (e.g., `s****`), **preserve the asterisks exactly as written**—do not interpret or auto-correct the censored text ✅ "Have I been on with Meghan McCain, or does she just come after me? I can't remember, but she's an annoying c***," Kathy claimed. ❌ "Have I been on with Meghan McCain?… I can't remember, but she's an annoying c**t," Kathy claimed. #### Italics **Italicize:** - Newspapers and magazines (*Us Weekly*, *The New York Times*) - Films, books, plays, TV shows, album titles, video games - Spacecraft, boats, airplanes (the *Enterprise*) **Do NOT italicize:** - Websites, news agencies, blogs, or TV networks (TMZ, The Blast, Reuters, CNN, BBC, E!) - Podcasts—use **quotes**, not italics #### Combined Text (closed compounds) - **Closed up:** cohost, coworker, coanchor, cofounder, costar, cocreator, coauthor, cochair, coparent - **Exception:** co-owner (looks weird unhyphenated) #### Commas - **"Only one" rule:** offset a name with commas only if the named person is the only one who could fill the role. ("My mom, Linda, told me…"—only one mom; "My sister Jennifer is taller…"—three sisters, no commas) - **City + state:** offset with commas at start or middle of sentence ("Westchester, New York, is where I was born") - **Full dates** (day + month + year): offset with commas ("on January 4, 2021, and fans are excited"). Month + year only: no offset ("in January 2021 and fans…") - **No Oxford / serial comma. Ever.** #### Couples / Pairs / Duos **Plural verbs** for couples, pairs, duos, and mashups (Brangelina, TomKat). This is unique to Us Weekly—other AMI titles use singular. Mashups are always plural. #### Curse Words - Hyphenate so the word is clear without spelling it out: f--k, s--t, a--hole, d--k, motherf---er, p--sy - For quoted matter only - Print **bitch**, **ass**, **tit** without hyphens #### Apostrophe S Rule - No additional s after apostrophe for words ending in s: Spears', Roberts', Desperate Housewives' - **Exception:** CBS's - For compound possessives where the possessive is made even more possessive, keep the s: "Grey's Anatomy: Grey's breakout star…" --- ### Style Reference (Selected) The full Master Style Guide is the source of truth for word-by-word decisions. The selections below cover the highest-frequency Us Weekly–distinctive entries—items that diverge from Merriam-Webster 11th defaults, are uniquely Us Weekly, or come up routinely in entertainment copy. For anything not listed here or below, defer down the reference hierarchy. **People + titles:** - **actor** for both men and actors in general; **actress** for a woman specifically - **comedian** for both male and female (not "comedienne") - **host** for both male and female (never "hostess") - **firefighter** (not "fireman") - **spokesman** / **spokeswoman** (not the ambiguous "spokesperson") - **little person** (not "dwarf"; never "midget") - **Native American** (not "American Indian") - **Dr.** only when not obvious from job description ("body language expert Dr. Lillian Glass") - **Jr.** with no comma preceding (e.g., Freddie Prinze Jr.); if a Jr. is in a caption that only identifies by name, use last name only with no Jr. - **junior** lowercased and spelled out unless with full name (John junior; John F. Kennedy Jr.) - Military titles cap before name (General David Petraeus) **Celebrity names + nicknames:** - **Beyoncé**—no Knowles - **Brandy**—no Norwood unless full name is referenced - **Diddy**—on second reference for Sean Combs - **Snooki**—first reference Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi - **Markle**—or Duchess of Sussex on second reference for royals stories; Markle otherwise - **Kardashian, Khloé**—accent in text, never on the cover - **K-Fed**—Kevin Federline; OK on second reference or in display type - **JLo**, **J.Lo**, **J. Lo**—different things: JLO is the clothing line; J.Lo is the album; J. Lo is the nickname - **Jay-Z**—with hyphen - **'NSync**, **'NSyncer** **Numbers + symbols:** - **4th of July** - **24/7** - **$10,000 worth of flowers** (not $10,000's worth) BUT "thousands of dollars' worth" - **20th Century Fox**—the company uses the ordinal - **No.** vs. **#**—use "No." in conjunction with a figure to indicate position or rank ("No. 1 man", "No. 3 choice"). Use # only in display type for space, under extreme duress **Awards + ceremonies:** - **Oscars**, **Emmys**, **Tonys**, **Grammys**, **Critics' Choice Awards** - "best supporting actor Golden Globe"; "an Academy Award" - Always **"awards show"**—not "award show" - **Critics' Choice Awards** pre-2010; **Critics' Choice Movie Awards** or **Critics' Choice Television Awards** from 2010 on - **Country Music Awards** = CMAs; **ACM Awards**; **CMT Music Awards** **Words to avoid / replace:** - "wanna" → avoid; "gonna" → avoid - "former Olympian" → never; once an Olympian, always an Olympian - "cougar" → banned from the magazine - "manse" → never; use "mansion" - "donuts" → use "doughnuts" - "paparazzi" / "paparazzo" → use "photographers" - "deserted island" (not "desert island") - "transgender" (not "transgendered") - "Latinx" → follow current desk policy; default to gendered "Latino" / "Latina" - "Roe v. Wade" italics for court cases --- ### Grammar and Punctuation **Em dash:** Spaces on both sides. Try to break up em-dash–heavy text or substitute parentheses. Avoid two sets of em dashes in one sentence. **En dash:** Use between prices and sports scores, and with compound modifiers where a two-or-more-word phrase modifies a single word. Type with option+hyphen on Mac. ("New York City–based designer", "fluffy pillow–loving Kardashian"). Not needed with abbreviations: "L.A.-area boutique". **Hyphen:** - Hyphenate temporary compound modifiers preceding a noun (a smooth-riding car; a shocking-pink dress) - Common or clearly defined compound modifiers no longer take hyphens (high school student, red carpet ready) - Hyphenate invented compound verbs (air-drum, executive-produce) - Display type: avoid hyphens unless absolutely necessary; never use a hard hyphen to break a word—use SHIFT+APPLE+HYPHEN soft hyphen - Capitalize words after hyphens in heds (Good-Bad Comparison; Jet-Black Hair; Behind-the-Scenes Runner-Up; A-List; Son-in-Law; G-String; T-Shirt) **Quotations:** - Capitalize the beginning of a quote when it follows attribution - Don't capitalize if the material before the attribution is paraphrased ("Although they once had a romance, she said, 'it now seems to be over.'") - Comma after short attribution; colon for longer leading clauses - Use single quotes in heds—but not in deks or pull-quotes when not initial-cap - Italicize commas, periods, colons, semicolons that follow italic words; not bold - Question marks and exclamation points don't take on italic unless the whole sentence is italic or they're part of an italic title **Capitalization:** - For story heds and some types of subheds: cap any word that is four letters or longer regardless of part of speech (including "with", "that", "from"); lowercase any preposition, article, or conjunction less than four letters - Exception: words that are part of an inseparable phrase ("Lay Off", "Tune In", "Find Out") are always capitalized - If a word is hyphenated in Merriam-Webster 11th, still capitalize the word after the hyphen in a hed (Jolie Shows She's a Do-Gooder) - "the" titles only capped when before a name (the prince; Prince Charles; the queen of England; Queen Elizabeth II) **Acronyms:** All caps only for true acronyms (PETA). Otherwise cap first letter only. **Slash (/):** Means "and/or". Acceptable for fun constructions (9/11, 24/7, ex-wife/sushi waitress). For song lyrics or poetry, add space before and after: "I like big butts and I cannot lie / You other brothers can't deny". **Possessives + names in parentheses:** Apostrophe and "s" come after the parens: Luke Skywalker (Mark Hammill)'s. **But not** with directionals: De Niro's (far left) festival. No additional s after possessive words ending in s. --- ### Evergreen vs. News Article Handling The CSA must correctly identify whether source material is evergreen or time-sensitive news—the two paths use different date formats and different attribution patterns. - Articles from 2023 or 2024 are **not** "current" unless the article explicitly flags its subject matter as ongoing or evergreen - When citing a quote from an older article in an evergreen piece, **always include the full month + year** of the original interview or publication (e.g., *in a March 2024 interview*) - For breaking news stories about current events, use the current-date format (see `#### Dates and Months`) --- ### Word Count Honor the selected word-count target. Output should not significantly exceed the target set in CSA settings. - A modest overage (**no more than ~15%**) is acceptable to preserve quote integrity or essential context - Consistent overages beyond ~15% should be treated as a formatting error, not a style choice --- ### CMS Workflow Every Us Weekly story requires the following CMS fields populated: - Flavor text (use only the labels on the team flavor-text sheet) - Category (if no vertical fits, choose Celebrity News) - Tags (must include a tag matching the category—Celebrity News tag for Celebrity News category, Entertainment tag for Entertainment category) - Content segment - Vertical - Audience category - Featured image: resized; crops set --- ### Reference Hierarchy When this guide doesn't address a question, defer in this order: 1. Us Weekly Style Supplement (this page is the consolidated working version) 2. *Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary*, 11th Edition 3. *The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual* 4. *Chicago Manual of Style* 5. *Words Into Type* --- ### What to Avoid | Prohibited | Reason | |---|---| | Oxford / serial comma | Us Weekly house style—no exception | | Ampersands in heds | Write "and"; ampersands reserved for taglines, bylines, reporting credits, and trademarked / official company names | | Periods in heds | House style | | Double quotes in heds | Single quotes only in heds and H2s | | Spelled-out numbers in heds | Numerals in heds and H2s; spell out only in body copy 1–9 | | Em dashes without surrounding spaces | Us Weekly em dashes get spaces (matches AP; Woman's World is the AMI deviator) | | Singular verbs for couples / pairs / duos | Us Weekly takes plural verbs—unique convention not shared with other AMI titles | | "we'd" / "you'll" / "you'd" / "must've" / "what'd" | Avoid; "It's" is OK | | "former Olympian" / "cougar" / "comedienne" / "hostess" / "American Indian" / "manse" / "donuts" / "wanna" / "gonna" | Banned or replaced per house style | | "paparazzi" / "paparazzo" | Use "photographers" | | Unbolded celebrity names in body copy | Bold celebrity names; link tag pages where available | | Lowercase or non-italicized "us" as a brand reference | *Us* always italicized with capital U—a brand nod | | Abbreviated months (Jan. / Sept. / Nov.) | Months always spelled out in full—deviates from AP | | "Key Facts" bullet-point format | Every Us Weekly story uses H2 prose-paragraph sections; never bullet-list summaries | | Quote truncated mid-sentence with `…` | Reproduce quotes exactly and in full; preserve censored-asterisk profanity verbatim | | Headlines under 80 or over 100 characters | 80–100 characters; roundups capture single unifying theme | | Output significantly over the word-count target | ≤~15% overage acceptable; beyond is a formatting error | | Missing CMS fields (flavor text, category, tags, content segment, vertical, audience category) | All required for publish | --- ### Pre-Publish Checklist **Headlines:** - Onpage / promo / SEO heds are sister-style with shared keywords; topic or celebrity name front-loaded - **80–100 characters**; roundups capture a single unifying theme (not comma-listed topics) - Numerals (not spelled-out numbers) in heds and H2s - Single quotes (not double) in heds and H2s—including for TV / film titles - No periods, no ampersands, no Oxford commas in heds - "1st" / "2nd" in heds—except "first date" / "first love" / "first time" - SEO hed in title case **H2 subheads:** - Title case - Include keywords - Written as complete phrases or questions - Subhead carries subject's full name + relevant keyword / context descriptor - **No "Key Facts" bullet-list format**; full prose paragraphs only; lead with substantive intro before first H2 **Body:** - *Us* italicized with capital U; full publication name *Us Weekly* italicized - TV / film titles: single quotes in heds, italics in body - All celebrity names bolded - First reference in each H2 uses full name; last-name-only after (reality stars may go by first name) - Tag pages linked over celebrity names where available - Em dashes and ellipses have spaces on both sides - Numbers 1–9 spelled out in body; numerals for 10+ - **Months always spelled out** (no Jan. / Sept. / Nov.) - Date format matches recency: "Monday, April 27" / "in April" / "December 2023" / "in a December 2023 interview" - **Quotes reproduced exactly and in full**; no mid-sentence `…` truncation; censored-asterisk profanity preserved verbatim - Italics on newspapers, magazines, films, books, TV shows, album titles, video games—not on websites, news agencies, blogs, TV networks; podcasts get quotes - No "we'd" / "you'll" / "you'd" / "must've" / "what'd" - Couples / pairs / duos use plural verbs - Curse words hyphenated for quoted matter only **Length and source handling:** - Output within **~15% of target word count**; consistent overages are a formatting error - Pre-2025 sources treated as **not current** unless explicitly evergreen; evergreen citations include full month + year of original **CMS:** - Flavor text, category, tags, content segment, vertical, audience category all set - Tag matches category (Celebrity News tag for Celebrity News category) - Featured image resized; crops set