Emap Targets Older Readers With Upmarket Women’s Title

Magazine publishing giant Emap is understood to be preparing a new title to cater for the upmarket end of the already crowded women’s magazine market based on Italian fashion weekly, Grazia.

The publisher follows in the footsteps of quality magazine giant Condé Nast, which unveiled its plans for an upmarket monthly title earlier this year. Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell has also announced plans to enter the women’s market, planning a glossy magazine to compete with existing fashion and beauty heavyweights Elle and Vogue (see Desmond Gears Up For Launch Of New Women’s Glossy).

However, the reported plans from Emap to build on the Grazia format could yield spectacular results. The Italian title is read by nearly a million readers each week and is the country’s oldest women’s title. Emap is reported to have secured the licence for a British edition of the title from its publisher the Mondadori Group and has the potential to replicate the magazine’s winning formula.

According to Mondadori, Grazia, Created in 1938, has established itself as a ‘reference point for style and journalistic quality’ aimed at educated women with refined tastes. Pitching itself at the very top of the women’s market in terms of quality content and design, the title also attracts lucrative advertising from the most exclusive fashion and cosmetic brands.

Emap’s stable of women’s titles has been left somewhat waning since its loss of Elle and Red magazine to Hachette-Filipacchi in 2002, and while speculation had circulated that the publisher was planning a women’s glossy earlier this year, reports suggested it had been scrapped due to its similarity to rival titles (see Emap Loses Fight For Red).

However, a British take on the Italian Grazia looks likely to address Emap’s copycat problem, attempting to corner the quality women’s market rather than focussing on the increasingly crowded populist fashion sector.

Reports suggest that the new title will be backed with a massive budget equalling that of Emap’s recently launched men’s title, Zoo, at £10 million. Rival publishers Condé Nast, meanwhile, is expected to spend £17 million on the launch of its women’s title, Easy Living (see Condé Nast Unveils Grown Up Women’s Title).

Emap: 01733 568 900 www.emap.co.uk

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