H Bauer Unveils New Women’s Monthly Magazine
H Bauer has revealed its latest venture into the women’s monthly magazine market with Lounge, a glossy title featuring a blend of puzzles, celebrities and competitions.
Designed as an alternative to the current crop of women’s monthlies, Lounge offers readers a selection of gloom-free articles focusing on the brighter side of life, promising no lectures and £20,000 of prizes to be won in each issue.
The magazine’s initial print run will be 350,000 with a cover price of £1.60. Designed to target readers aged between 35 and 45, the launch is to be accompanied by an advertising campaign in the Daily Mirror and several other H Bauer publications.
Explaining the title’s unique selling points, editor, Kevin Whitlock, said: “In terms of the way it looks and feels inside it has much more of a weekly feel about it. As a monthly it has a far lower cover price and is cheaper than the glossies. At the moment it doesn’t seem to have any competition at all.”
He added: “What we’re trying to do is something that’s actually a bit of a laugh! We had a call from a reader the other day and she said it looked like we’d had fun putting it together, and we did. Hopefully if we have a laugh putting it together that will mean people will have a laugh reading it.”
The launch follows the recent upturn in circulation figures for a number of monthly titles targeting thirty-something women. The BBC’s Eve recorded an impressive 17.6% year on year increase to 142,382 in the second half of last year. Time Life Entertainment’s InStyle saw circulation improve by 6.8% to 187,172 and Hachette Filipacchi’s Red rose by 2.5% during the same perido to just below 200,000.
Conversely, a range of titles targeting twenty-something women have recently suffered falling circulations. IPC’s Marie Claire reported a 9.8% year on year drop to 360,789 and has recently begun price cutting in a bid to stem the decline while Hachette Filipacchi’s Elle suffered a 5.3% year on year drop in the latest ABC results to just above the 200,000 mark.
H Bauer’s Real was revealed to have recorded the the largest percentage growth in circulation in the women’s monthly magazine market. The title for ABC1 women aged between 25 and 40 climbed by 27.6% year on year to reach 205,702 (see ABC Jul-Dec 2003: Glamour Tightens Grip On Women’s Monthlies).
H Bauer Publishing: 020 7241 8000 www.bauer.co.uk
Recent Magazine Stories from NewsLine Emap Advertising Appoints People And Culture Director Dennis Launches Monthly Gambling Magazine For Men Sugar Secures Safe Sex Sponsorship Deal With Durex
Subscribers can access ten years of NewsLine articles by clicking the Search button to the left