The State Of Women’s Health

Last week saw the introduction of a new women’s title – Women’s Health – into an already packed sector of the magazine market.

Women’s Health, however, identifies itself as a magazine with a difference, distancing itself from other women’s titles which feature skinny models by claiming to represent ‘real women’ (see Newsline). Christine Morgan, the magazine’s editor, told Newsline: “We made a conscious decision that we weren’t going to go down that line, basically. It’s a health magazine and I believe people that skinny, like the fashion models, don’t look healthy. Women’s magazines don’t seem to want to feature real women on them, especially on the cover.”

Despite this, although the launch issue doesn’t picture anorexic-like models, all the women on its pages are trim, curvey and fit looking – not an inch of flab in sight. Features on popular female sports personalities and women ‘bouncers’ do their bit for girl power, but at the end of the day there is little here to distinguish this title from any of the others on the market, with the usual dull features on the best moisturisers, lipsticks and facemasks on the market.

Women’s Health sees itself in competition with the likes of Zest, but also lifestyle magazines such as New Woman and Company. All these titles saw a rise in circulation according to the latest ABC figures (see Newsline). Zest’s circulation increased by 8.7%, and Top Santé Health & Beauty saw a rise of 12.3%, taking its circulation figure up to 183,721. New Woman also showed an impressive rise of 12.3%, an actual increase of nearly 31,000 copies, possibly resulting from its recent revamp (see Newsline).

However, many other of the women’s health and lifestyle titles saw their circulations drop. Here’s Health, the monthly EMAP title, for example, suffered a drop of 13.5% in its circulation, and Slimming also saw a fall in its figures by 6.29%; this, perhaps, does not bode well for new health titles entering the market.

Christine Morgan previously worked as a freelance writer on Your Health, also published by WV Publications. Your Health has now been incorporated into the new launch after its circulation figures dropped to an all time low.

In the approach to its launch, there was also some controversy surrounding the title. Men’s Health, the Rodale Press title, expressed concern that the masthead of Women’s Health was too similar to its own, and that the magazine might be mistaken for its sister title. Christine Morgan told Newsline: “They’ve seen the publication and they think it looks too close to their own, but, as we have argued, you can’t get much different from one magazine being for men and one magazine being for women. They’re totally different markets, they’ll be on totally different areas of the news-stand, there’s no way you’re going to confuse one with the other.”

So close to its launch, it is impossible to predict how Women’s Health will fare in the stormy sea of the women’s magazines market. Unfortunately, it does not appear to deliver on the promise of breaking new ground. There is nothing in the first issue which covers material that is not dealt with by other titles in the sector. Although only time will whether Women’s Health proves success or failure, its lack of promised originality points to a short life.

Reviewer: Deborah Bonello

WV Publications: 0171 331 1000