Condé Nast Unveils Grown Up Women’s Title
Quality magazine giant Condé Nast has unveiled its latest foray into the women’s market with a new monthly title featuring a mix of style, glamour and practical real-life issues due to launch in the first half of 2005.
The company claims Easy Living will deliver useful and realistic solutions to improve modern women’s lives. With content ranging from fashion, food, health and beauty, to home and relationship issues, the magazine appears to be a direct rival to Hachette Filipacchi’s Red (see Condé Nast Silent Over Plans For New Women’s Glossy).
As had been expected, Chris Hughes, former publishing director of the National Magazine Company’s Good Housekeeping, has been appointed as publisher of the new title. Susie Forbes, current deputy editor of Vogue, has been installed as the new title’s editor.
Commenting on her appointment, Forbes said: “I am delighted to be heading up this very exciting new project for Condé Nast. Easy Living reflects what so many women want today – intelligent, practical, stylish ways to make life more simple.”
Nicholas Coleridge, managing director of Condé Nast, added: “Easy Living is an original concept with wide appeal, and we expect to achieve an initial circulation between 150,000 and 200,000. We have a crack team of editor and publisher in place, and the launch marketing will be aggressive. It is the right magazine at the right time.”
The new title promises to be both functional and fashionable, a claim which could prove to be highly lucrative for Condé Nast. The company has carried out extensive research across the UK into ABC1 C2 women aged between 30 and 59, finding more than 6 million women in Easy Living‘s target market, with growth in the sector expected to be around 8% over the next 10 years.
In addition, the company claims its target readership has massive spending power, shelling out more than £6.4 billion on fashion, £1.4 billion on skincare and cosmetics and £46 billion on food in the past year. In addition, in almost every product category more than 50% of UK retail sales were to women.
Condé Nast’s research is underlined by the success of rival publication Red, with the latest ABC results showing that the Hachette-owned title is performing well with its mix of fashion, beauty and entertainment targeting a similar readership to Easy Living.
Red has seen circulation rise by 2.5% year on year to just under the 200,000 mark, a success which the new title will understandably be keen to ape. However, there is increasing competition in the market with the National Magazine Company understood to be preparing a celebrity-focused weekly to compete with Emap’s highly successful Closer (see Natmags To Take On Closer With New Celebrity Weekly).
Condé Nast: 020 7499 9080 www.condenast.co.uk
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