NewsLine Feature: Look, Another Women’s Weekly
As the release of the July to December 2006 consumer magazine ABCs creeps ever nearer, IPC Media has spawned another women’s weekly title into an already crowded market. But will Look, a glossy femme “bible” saturated with celebs, tawdry high street fashions and body image hysteria, really be a viable commercial success, and will women migrate away from Emap’s successful Grazia towards the new kid on the block?
Since Grazia launched in February 2005 (see Emap’s Grazia Hits Shelves), the title has forged ahead as a brand, proving its worth in the field with a circulation climb of almost 13% year on year for January to June last year (see ABC Results Jan-Jun 2006:Mixed Results Revealed For Women’s Weekly Market). The high fashion glossy – the first in the weekly sector in the UK – accumulated more than 20,000 new sales in the period, to give it an average total of more than 175,200 issues.
Britain has 30 women’s weekly magazines, and IPC’s key titles in the market – Chat, Now, Pick Me Up, Woman, Woman’s Own and Woman’s Weekly – all suffered year on year declines of varying degrees at the last ABCs. Look, IPC’s biggest ever magazine launch, is a huge gamble for the publisher, which is investing £18 million in the title with a further £9 million poised for marketing spend.
The new title, a joint development between IPC and Groupe Marie Claire (see IPC Media Sweetened By Biggest Ever Mag Launch), is an ambitious project, and potentially very risky for a company whose other titles in the sector have failed to perform of late. Recently, News Magazines, a division of News International, shelved plans to publish a new women’s weekly, which was being developed under the name Project Danni (see News Magazines Shelves Project Danni).
Look, which is aimed at a slightly younger demographic than its nearest rival, will of course not want to position itself as Grazia‘s down-market companion, even though it has a 50p less cover charge at £1.30.
Evelyn Webster, managing director of Look‘s publishing group IPC Connect, has predicted that the new magazine would be selling 250,000 copies within a year. The company has this week given away 1.2 million copies through Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer and WH Smith, as well as supermalls like Bluewater and Lakeside. The magazine’s preview issue is also this week bagged with IPC’s Now and News International’s freesheet thelondonpaper.
The dummy run, which has kept busy those involved with the product’s launch for many months, is far from ‘wow’. On initial examination, it looks remarkably similar to Grazia, but with a slightly less chic edge. Look‘s trial issue has a somewhat shabby layout, subbing errors and little to raise it above its contemporaries.
Advertisements in Look‘s preview issue are barely noticeable – just eight full pages out of a possible 106, plus a double spread for the magazine’s first “real” edition (out Tuesday 6 February), peppered between Posh, Brangelina and Paris et al. Clearly this low ad to editorial ratio won’t last, but the entire publication acts as an advertorial of sorts – “the girl about town needs this, needs that, find it here, find it there.”
After accusations that Welsh songstress Charlotte Church has ballooned to a – shock horror – size 14, there’s a double page spread dedicated to surgical hand lifts for the bulging veins on one’s unsightly mitts. All the beautiful people are having them, daaahling. Kate Bosworth fills some column inches – the actress is now a “curvy” 8st.
The hidden dangers of hair extensions are revealed, before it’s time to get serious – two pages about a woman who survived the M25 coach crash and a further four for an article about gang rape in Pakistan (all nestled deeply mid-mag). No doubt most readers will skip such unfortunate and somewhat out of place features, past the horror of reality and on to the saviour of pages of “hot” high street looks.
Whether IPC’s gamble will pay off remains to be seen, but what is clear is that Look‘s future is uncertain. In a world where more titles are flooding the market and readers are migrating online, launching a new print product is bold and perilous. But if it works, IPC will have the last laugh, standing to gain a strong brand and potentially lucrative dividends.
IPC Media: 0870 4445000 www.ipcmedia.com