ShortList to launch new women’s mag

ShortList Media is set to launch a free weekly women’s title to rival glossy magazines like Grazia, following the success of its free weekly men’s magazine ShortList.

The publisher’s new title, which will be aimed at affluent ABC1 women in the 25 to 40-yeear-old age bracket, will focus on celebrity and fashion, according to reports.

However, ShortList Media is only at the stage of presenting plans to agencies, so the proposed launch is unlikely to take place until later this year.

The publisher launched its free mass-circulation weekly men’s title ShortList in September 2007, which features news, sport, TV, cars, movies and style – according to the magazine’s front cover.

In the latest ABC release, ShortList had the highest circulation in the men’s lifestyle sector at more than 500,000 copies – up 5.1% period on period (see ABC Results Jul-Dec 2008:Shortlist shows staying power in men’s lifestyle sector).

The title has bucked the general downward trend in the consumer magazine market, which has seen rival men’s titles Nuts and FHM fall by 13.5% year on year and Zoo suffer a significant 18.5% year on year decline.

The data suggest that ShortList has had a negative impact on the sales of paid-for men’s titles and could well have been a contributor to the closure of Bauer Media’s Arena magazine earlier this month (see The rise and fall of Arena).

News of ShortList Media’s plans to launch a second free title come just a day after media journalist Ray Snoddy encouraged publishers to plan and invest in new launches (see Snoddy: “Publishers should be planning launches”).

Speaking at MediaTel Group’s ‘Future of Consumer Magazines’ seminar yesterday, Snoddy said publishers should be taking advantage of the fact that “the entire sector is in private hands” and investing in launches, in preparation for when the recession ends.

However, fellow panellist, Dominic Williams – press director at Carat – argued that publishers would be “crazy” to launch in this market because “it’s so risky and there is already too much choice”.

Williams said: “Publishers should invest in current brands. Agencies are definitely going with stronger and more established brands.”