Top Sante First Issue Report
The latest addition to the women’s monthly magazine market, Top Sante Health & Beauty, hits the newsstands today with an ambitious print run of 400,000. The magazine is modelled on the French title, also called Top Sante, but adapted for the UK market. Billed as “the magazine about feeling and looking good,” the UK Top Sante is an A4, stapled, glossy with a pagination of 100.
While the layout and design of the magazine offers no surprises, it is well presented with none of the rough edges new titles often have and obviously benefitting from the experience of its well established French sister. The magazine’s editorial introduction declares “Top Sante Health & Beauty will ask the questions, find the answers, debunk the hype and put health, beauty and physical well-being into perspective.”
The first page within the magazine comprises letters from health and beauty ‘experts’ which endorse the need for a title like Top Sante. The majority of the subsequent editorial features have a strong medical element, such as ‘tomorrow’s medicine’ which focuses on the doctor’s surgery in the year 2000. An 8-page feature is devoted to the results of a nationwide health poll commissioned by the magazine. Other topics covered in the magazine include antibiotics, x-rays, insomnia and shyness. A leading gynaecologist is interviewed on the subject of cervical cancer, a curious addition to this feature is a profile of the interviewee which informs the reader of his love for rugby.
The 11-page ‘TV Health’ occupies the centre of the magazine with a review of terrestrial viewing for the coming month, focusing on programmes with a health and beauty aspect to them. The editorial in the second half is more beauty orientated. A page devoted to new beauty products could belong to any number of women’s magazines, as could the page devoted to free gifts. There are also features dedicated to cellulite, eyebrows and hair.
After beauty comes the food section which predictably contains healthy recipes. The puzzle page, including a crossword, appears a little out of place in a magazine that is aspiring to position itself in the top half of the market. Finally Top Sante includes what is a familiar feature in virtually all women’s magazines – the problem page.
Top Sante’s media pack positions it midway between Prima and Cosmopolitan with a core readership falling in the ABC1C2 25-44 group. The appearance and style of the first issue places it somewhere between the women’s weeklies and more upmarket monthlies. Although higher in quality than the majority of weeklies it does not match the perfect- bound monthlies. Editorially the magazine offers a fresh outlook from existing titles by excluding the fashion element so predominant in many women’s magazines. However, it does still manage to slip in one or two glossy photographs of 8 stone 6 foot models.
14 of Top Sante’s 100 pages are given over to advertising. The full page colour ads include Oral B, Seven Seas, the Department of Health, Avon, Vichy and Heinz Spaghetti. The only DPS is taken by L’Oreal. In the current market there is no doubt the new title will have to battle to establish itself and reach its target circulation of 200,000. Overall the first issue is well presented, although possibly let down by the front cover.
BASIC DATA – TOP SANTE
Cover Price: £1.30 Print Run: 400,000 Target Circ: 200,000 Editor: Frankie McGowan Ad Director: Jacqui Elliott Mono Page: £2600 Colour Page: £3300
Telephone: 071 229 9006