‘Real’ Women To Get More Magazines

The women’s magazine market is to see two new launches in as many months of publications which claim to be a backlash against the skinny, super-thin models which dominate the mainstream. The launches coincide with the British Medical Association’s condemnation of much magazine and TV content, which it claims may encourage anorexia in young girls.

The first title Total Style was launched by WV Publications, a division of Highbury House, this month and is aimed at women who are “sick of seeing teenage girls with stick-thin bodies gracing the covers and inside pages of practically every magazine on-shelf today.”

Total Style is a hair and beauty magazine ‘with a difference’, aimed at women aged 25-40. It sets itself aside from other hair and beauty titles on the market because it believes “the intelligent image-conscious woman deserves better – which is why instead of an endless stream of hair pictures, product PR stuff and gawky teenagers, Total Style provides more pages of genuine information, inspiration and aspiration than any other titles on the market today.”

The second title, due to be launched by the same publisher on 10 september, is called Women’s Health. It shares the same target audience and “aims to send a message to its readers: you don’t have to be thin to be beautiful, and you certainly don’t have to look like a supermodel to have fun in life.” It will be a lifestyle mag in which items on fashion and make-up are out, and features on tattooing, kick-boxing and sports wear are in.

In the wake of the most recent ABC figures which shows a decline in circulation of titles aiming for the 25-40 age group, such as Tatler and Harpers & Queen, both titles level of success is yet to be seen.

WV Publications: 0171 331 1000