Awards of Courage
Daniel J. Osheyack
Honoring with Pride 2003 Honoree
As associate publisher of PEOPLE magazine since June 1998, Daniel J. Osheyack is responsible for the strategic marketing, brand promotion, event programming and advertising sales development of the world’s most popular magazine. Osheyack came to PEOPLE from sister publication Entertainment Weekly, where, as a member of the launch team, he oversaw EW’s marketing and promotion efforts.
Dan joined Time Inc. in 1980 as a promotion copywriter at Money magazine. In August 1989 he moved to Entertainment Weekly as the new publication’s first promotion manager. He became promotion director in 1991, vice president of promotion and public affairs in 1993, and was named associate publisher four years later. Dan is credited with helping to shape EW’ s brand identity in the advertising, entertainment and not-for-profit communities.
At PEOPLE, Osheyack produced the 25th Anniversary celebration in 1999. The anniversary culminated in the star-studded benefit concert, Carole King: Making Music With Friends, which raised $1 million for charity. He also helped manage the launch of PEOPLE’s Digital Heroes Campaign, an online mentoring program that pairs celebrities and prominent leaders with underserved teens to focus attention on the need for mentoring our nation’s youth. In addition, Osheyack oversees PEOPLE’s relationships with amfAR, The Screen Actor’s Guild Foundation, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, The Pediatric AIDS Foundation and The Entertainment Industry Foundation.
In the early 1980’s, Dan began a personal association with amfAR by doing pro bono copywriting. Shortly thereafter, he joined a group of friends who were volunteering to raise funds for the organization. This led to the 1986 fundraiser, To Care is to Cure, the first event to focus the attention and power of the fashion community on the AIDS crisis. To Care is to Cure raised more than $400,000 for amfAR. From photo sessions that evening, an AIDS awareness campaign was also developed. Through Osheyack, Money magazine took a leadership position in providing pro bono ad space to amfAR for this campaign, paving the way for others to follow.
When Osheyack moved to Entertainment Weekly, he established a unique relationship between EW and amfAR, which, through strategic event underwriting and other marketing efforts, resulted in the generation of new funds and much-needed awareness. In 1992, amfAR honored EW with the Award of Courage for corporate leadership. The following year, Osheyack, with the support of Entertainment Weekly management, helped launch amfAR’s annual benefit at the Cannes Film Festival. Cinema Against AIDS has grown over the years, raising more than $12 million to date for amfAR’s programs.
As part of the “do well by doing good” mandate that Osheyack helped instill at EW, many other AIDS organizations also received assistance from the magazine. These included the Red Hot Organization for the launches of Red Hot & Blue, Red Hot & Dance and Red Hot & Rio, AIDS Project Los Angeles, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, LifeBEAT and numerous others. Through Dan’s efforts, Entertainment Weekly was also the first mainstream publication to provide pro bono ad space to the Gay Games and among the first to support the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).
Currently, Osheyack is a member of the amfAR Board Committee on Communications/Marketing. He was a founding co-chair of Out@Timeinc and now sits on the organization’s management council. Dan also served on the board of GLAAD for two years. A graduate of SUNY at Cortland with a B.A. in Communications, Osheyack received an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Missouri. He lives in Manhattan with his partner of eight years, filmmaker and photographer Joseph Moran.