NatMags overhauls She for new market

by MediaWeek, Media Week 23-Jun-05, 14:45

The “full weight” of the National Magazine Company is to be thrown behind the re-launch of She magazine in the autumn, as it attempts to reposition itself as a glossy monthly for over-35 women.

The move to overhaul the title will throw it into competition with Conde Naste’s Easy Living, Haymarket’s recent acquisition from the BBC, Eve, and Red, published by Hachette Filipacci.

NatMags said development of the She re-launch, under the title Project J, has been carried out for over two years.

The revamped She will target what NatMag’s have called “confident, educated women looking for more depth and breadth of content”.

Edwards said: “The project was developed independently of the existing SHE but extensive research across the country proved time and again that after fifty years in the UK market, the She brand is one of the most recognised and powerful brands in the monthly sector.

“Confident that we have a genuinely unique editorial proposition and an incredibly powerful brand name, we have decided to put the two things together and launch the new magazine concept into the 35+ women’s market using the She brand name.

“We believe that this is the perfect vehicle to enable the new magazine concept to fulfil its potential in an increasingly competitive, cluttered and derivative market.

Edwards criticised recent launches into the monthly magazine market as lacking “innovation” and pledged the new version She had given NatMags the opportunity to produce a title both “creative and new”.

The new magazine will be edited by Matthew Line, who has been working on Project J since he joined NatMags in September 2004.

Justine Southall, group publishing director for the Young Women’s Group at NatMags, will be charged with uinveiled the revamped title for its Novemeber edition.

She said: “We have been researching this project across the country for almost two years now.
We’ve spoken to hundreds of women about all aspects of their lives; this research has created the foundation for a truly unique magazine concept.”

Line added: “To both reinvent an established brand and reinterpret the traditional women’s monthly magazine is not only an exciting prospect but an exceptionally rare opportunity.”

Handling commercial activities will be publisher Becky McBride, ex-strategic planning manager for NatMags, with Joanne O’Hara taking on a consultant ad director role.

The current version of She will continue in its current guise until the October edition, when the current editor Terry Tavner will step down.

Sales of She in the last round of audited circulation figures saw a drop of 5% to 180,000 in the period July to December 2004.

By Kevin May