IPC Media Sweetened By Biggest Ever Mag Launch

IPC Media’s IPC Connect, the company’s women’s weeklies division, and Groupe Marie Claire are to launch a new magazine early in the New Year.

Project Honey, aimed at 18 to 30-year-old women, has been developed over the past 18 months and represents an £18 million investment across its first two years, making it IPC Media’s biggest-ever launch.

Project Honey is led by IPC Connect managing director Evelyn Webster, alongside editor Ali Hall, and newly appointed publishing director Julie Lavington, former publishing director of TVChoice, TVQuick and Total TV Guide.

“What we are now seeing in the UK is a generation of confident, bright and ambitious young women who are determined to cram everything in to their lives,” said Webster. “They want it all, and they want it right now. Project Honey will be the perfect filter for these women. It will define their decade of indulgence.”

IPC chief executive Sylvia Auton, added: “IPC and Groupe Marie Claire have been jointly publishing Marie Claire here in the UK to enormous acclaim for the last 18 years.

“The opportunity to extend and deepen this highly successful partnership through the launch of Project Honey was simply too good to miss.”

Groupe Marie Claire chief executive Arnaud de Contades, said: “Project Honey is a truly innovative magazine and we are delighted to be launching in the UK with IPC. Our joint venture is one of the most successful and long-standing business partnerships in UK media.”

IPC’s triple bill of Woman, Woman’s Own and Woman’s Weekly all saw a fall in circulation year on year at the last ABCs.

Woman, which has the largest total distribution of the three at more than 417,00 copies per week, has seen its circulation decline by 14%. Woman’s Own and Woman’s Weekly dipped by over 13% and 8% respectively (see ABC Results Jan-Jun 2006:Mixed Results Revealed For Women’s Weekly Market).

IPC Media: 0870 4445000 www.ipcmedia.com