The most significant development in the print media world in the past week was the news that Shortlist Media will be launching Stylist, their free fashion title for women, in France in the Spring of this year.

It will be distributed in ninecities from launch, including Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux and Strasbourg, with a targetlaunch ABC of 400,000 copies per week. Alongside the print edition, Stylist will also exist fromlaunch as a full, interactive tablet version.

It will be distributed initially in 9 cities, including Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux and Strasbourg, with a target launch ABC of 400,000 copies per week. The print edition will be accompanied by a fully interactive tablet version.

The launch is a joint venture with Groupe Marie Claire, the number one publisher of upscale women’s magazines in France. Between them, the partners have created a heavyweight launch team including Editor Aude Walker, previously of the Glamour launch team, Editor‐at‐Large Audrey Diwan, who is also a Glamour alumni having spend 9 years there as Culture then Features Editor, and Publisher & Managing Director Gwenaelle Thebault, previously Marketing Director of Group Marie Claire.

The success the Stylist sales team have had in luring initially sceptical French and Italian fashion houses into their UK edition, which now has a audited circulation of 431,000 copies, is probably the motivation behind the venture. Having done the hard work of convincing those brands of the value of advertising in a free magazine, a French edition offers an opportunity to secure further spend from them.

So the commercial reasoning is sound but can Stylist be the same roaring success in France it has been in the UK? Certainly, the Shortlist Media team have chosen the right entry strategy.

If you want to succeed in France, your venture needs to have a liberal dash of French involvement, so the partnership with Group Marie Claire is smart. What would have been an obscure British fashion title now becomes elevated by it’s association with the leading publisher of premium women’s magazines in France. It’s an approach that other publishers have adopted to gain traction in the French market.

In addition,the culture of free media in France, after a rocky start, is now firmly established with titles such as Metro France, Direct Matin and 20 Minutes. However, these are all newspapers so Stylist will be breaking new ground as a free women’s magazine. It’s competitors will no doubt be the free supplements that accompany the weekend press, such as Le Figaro’s Madame Figaro, and it will be interesting to see how Stylist fares against such titles and what impact it has on their sales.

The unknown is how French women will take to free fashion title. Will it editorial worth be perceived as less worthy because it’s free? For that reason alone, we’d advise interested fashion advertisers to wait and see.

We’ll certainly be watching the launch with interest. Mike Soutar, CEO and Co‐Founder of Shortlist Media, clearly sees this is the first of many international launches to come. If Stylist France can succeed, then we may see a flurry of international launches – an interesting development for existing Stylist advertisers who will see a cost effective opportunity to promote themselves beyond these shores.

By: Karen Stephenson

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The women’s lifestyle sector is not holding up as well as it did in the second half of 2011, with the majority of titles recording declines. Actively purchased magazines have continued to fall with an overall year on year (YoY) decrease of -5.1% and period on period (PoP) of -3.4%.

More!, Company, Look, Hello!, Grazia and Glamour, were among the worst hit. However, freebie Stylist enjoyed positive results and Easy Living posted a stand-out performance, bucking the overall market trend.

 

 Just eight titles in the latest round of ABC analysis saw a YoY circulation uplift, only four posting PoP increases. Stylist, Easy Living and Image were the only titles to see a positive YoY and PoP change and there is great debate on the ongoing decline of this sector.

Flicking through one of June’s glossy women’s mags is like entering a time machine. The voice doesn’t seem to have evolved – it doesn’t acknowledge the way women speak now.  Sites like Twitter and blogs are a more contemporary forum for venting female topics, leaving many magazines having to invest not only heavily into reader research but also their ever expanding multimedia channels just to stay relevant.

Hearst UK tackled this issue head on with extensive research into how young women are now consuming the magazine market. This has had a huge effect on their revamped Company magazine (previously referred to as Cosmo’s little sister) and also the twice yearly and recently renamed The Edit. The research undertaken showed that girls were more interested in blogs and the more organic opinions that come from them. They no longer want to be told to buy the newest looks in season, but want to be inspired in how to mix new looks with what they already have.

Criticisms of magazines, particularly Grazia and Cosmopolitan, include how they project the idea that women should be constantly self-criticising and ‘improving’ themselves. Although these titles are written from the perspective of a best friend, who will help them out with these problems, consumers are actually feeling that they make matters worse. It seems that some readers have moved on from this style of writing and transitioned into the age of the blogs.

Reinforcing these findings, it seems as though the weekly magazine market’s appeal has waned, with historic favourites such as Grazia, more!, Hello, Reveal and Look being amongst the worst decliners for the season. It is evident that with the younger part of the population having to tighten their belts, and the ever-expanding availability of such content online, the target audience for these magazines are finding less and less reason to purchase these publications. Titles such as Ok! are beginning to adapt to the latest in celebrity trends to fight this transition – for instance, the invigorated interest in the Royals. However, longevity will ultimately come from adaption and extention into opportunities across other media.

Even with their 7.5% decrease PoP Abby Carvasso, managing director of Grazia magazine, has said that: “Grazia is the only title to tap into the upscale environment every week. That is its point of difference. The demand from advertisers is at an all-time high.”

Carvasso also justified the falls of more! magazine by saying the title had received no marketing or price-promotion in the six month period ahead of its re-launch in June, adding that the title will now be relevant to the people of today.

With so much competition from titles such as Look and also the revamp of Company magazine, it will be interesting to see how more! continues to try and outsell the competition. 

Ok! and Star’s decline has been attributed to a lack of investment, and not having brand extensions. Also, readers aren’t just after celebs – they want fashion and/or real life as well. The market continues to have its challenges but despite this, Ok! Magazine has maintained its position as the UK’s bestselling glossy celebrity weekly, selling over 36% more copies than Hello! at the UK newsstand. 

On the opposite side of the scale, free publication Stylist has moved into the top 3 circulating titles after increases of 1.1% YoY and 0.8% PoP. For the first time it falls into line closely behind the ever strong Glamour magazine, which still retains its crown in the number 1 position.  The primary reason behind this is that it’s managed to buck the trend of being a vapid fashion magazine and has successfully combined more attainable fashion and beauty with travel, lifestyle, witty columns and intelligent, original features. It engages with, instead of patronising, its readers so it’s no wonder their UK city expansion continues at a rate of knots!

Despite another fall in sales, Glamour is still holding on to the top spot with 470,138 copies sold in this period. Available in a compact, handbag-friendly size, Glamour manages to achieve the same things as its nearest competitor in the monthly arena – Cosmopolitan – but without the £3.40-odd price tag. Editor Jo Elvin has achieved a consistently casual and friendly tone throughout the magazine, really helping the reader to get to know the team and see them as ‘women like us’. The main strength of the magazine is the sense that it is a publication for your average modern woman. It is, in a sense, the perfect compromise between the fast fix weeklies and high-fashion publications.

Easy Living, however, has been the long awaited star of this season’s results and has seen the greatest increase of 17.1% PoP following the magazine’s redesign and arrival of new editor Deborah Joseph, supported by an extensive marketing campaign. It now has a broader array of beautiful and useful solutions for every aspect of modern living and is aligning itself perfectly with the  yummy mummy 50 shades zeitgeist under the guise of its new ‘@Passion’ section – expect sales to go through the roof!

At the slightly older end of the middle youth market, Good Housekeeping’s 8.8% decrease PoP caused its drop down the leaderboard. With this title, Hearst has adopted a multi-brand approach, including related products, books and the imminent launch of Goodhousekeeping.co.uk in September.  Woman & Home, which had been slowly climbing, also suffered a decline. This once more is attributed to the growing strength of ‘Generation Y not’ within the digital market and the older generation of women becoming more savvy and confident with new technology.

Overall for the close of 2012’s reporting we saw an underwhelming set of ABC figures  with only a handful of titles coming out victorious over the year.  The real interest for the future is the increase in digital editions, iPad and mobile and the reporting of those.  Magazines will need to ensure that they are speaking about all their touchpoints not just the paper format.

By: Karen Stephenson

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