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Backed by a pounds 10 million launch investment, Bauer is aiming to

revolutionise the women's market by introducing a format from Germany

which is untried in the UK.

Real, which has an emphasis on 'real life' stories, is a hybrid of a

traditional women's weekly and a monthly glossy, with coverage of

fashion and beauty, cookery and homes.

The magazine will be perfect-bound with higher production values than

weeklies, but will retail at 'a competitive price'.

Advertisers are being guaranteed a circulation of 300,000 and Bauer's

sales house, the Publishing Consultancy, is offering two ads for the

price of one in the first issues.

Weekly and fortnightly glossies are common in continental Europe. In

Germany, Brigitta, with a similar format, sells over 900,000.

The timing could be right for Real to shake up the weeklies market

which, excluding the celebrity magazines, has been in the doldrums for

some time.

Some years ago, Sugar similarly shook up the youth market by introducing

a glossy monthly format that had a devastating impact on the teen

weeklies, which were forced to follow suit.

Ironically, the magazines that could suffer most are Bauer's own

women's-weekly titles, particularly Bella.

A spokesperson for Bauer conceded Bella could be impacted by the launch

of Real, but seemed unconcerned.

'Sure, Bella could be affected, but Real is the next generation of

women's magazines, and will impact on lots of titles,' he said.

Meanwhile, Glamour and InStyle, the most recent launches into the

women's market, have got off to a sound start. Glamour's first issue is

estimated to have sold 450,000 after printing an extra 50,000 copies.

InStyle is estimated to have sold 280,000.