After nine years at Vogue, Susie Forbes confesses to having become institutionalised. But she has finally found something worthy of tempting her away from the glamorous fifth floor of Vogue House. From this month, she will be consigned to the basement, as she becomes the editor of Conde Nast's new women's glossy, Easy Living.
"I always thought I'd be a Vogue lifer," Forbes says. After all, she has spent the past few years working her way around the title -- from the features and lifestyle departments to fashion editor and latterly the role of deputy editor.
Her rise through the Conde Nast ranks has been pretty textbook.
Having studied for a history of art degree at Edinburgh University, she landed her first job as a fashion secretary on Elle. She then worked at Emap's Sky magazine and, three years later, she was poached for Vogue by its then deputy editor, Louise Chunn.
Forbes acknowledges working on Vogue has been an incredibly glamorous ride but is surprisingly unruffled about leaving the title: "I was presented with an opportunity I just couldn't turn down. Easy Living is such a me magazine."
Displaying none of the luvvie attitude you might expect from a seasoned fashion hack, Forbes admits to being a normal, anxious woman underneath all the Vogue sheen. "I mind about being a poor cook and look for help," she says, explaining that she is essentially the kind of woman that the new magazine will target -- the fashionable but practical.
Easy Living has been billed as the practical Good Housekeeping meets the stylish Red, but Forbes denies that it will be competing directly with either of these titles.
"It's very convenient to compare Easy Living with an existing magazine but the reality is that it will create a new slice of the market as Glamour did."
The publicity claims that the title is aimed at women between 30 and 60 and the circulation target is 150,000 to 200,000.
On paper, it's hard to see that the title will fill any gaping hole as the demographic is serviced with Eve, Red and In Style at the younger end, moving through to the more mature woman with Good Housekeeping and Woman & Home. However, it seems Conde Nast's real distinction is that it is not actually selling on the age of the reader but concentrating on a lifestage, termed "new youth", prominent through the group.
"There's an attitude that exists throughout the 30- to 59-year-old market that has never existed before," Forbes explains. "Where 30- and 50-year-olds used to be a generation apart, now the 50-year-old is as likely to want a makeover and be looking for a new partner as the 30-year-old."
Jane Wolfson, the non-broadcast director at Initiative, believes the prospect is interesting but says: "I can only see it being a threat to titles at the older end of the market where it is currently hard to find magazines that effectively service the 35-plus group."
It certainly seems that the current number one in the older market, Good Housekeeping, which has a circulation of 415,730, is the most vulnerable. Especially after Conde Nast poached its publisher, Chris Hughes, for the same role on its new title. Good Housekeeping's owner, The National Magazine Company, declined to comment.
Due to launch in the early part of 2005, Easy Living is still shrouded in secrecy and Forbes is keeping quiet about its cover price, size and feature schedule.
She claims it is going to be unique in both look and content. Its positioning is that of a beauty magazine, which will include fashion, food, health and beauty, home and relationships. "The core focus will be to fuse all these together, providing an appealingly wide breadth of opportunity for advertisers," Forbes says.
Julie Harris, the general manager of Hachette Filipacchi's women's group, is not convinced Conde Nast is advocating anything that different. "All good lifestyle magazines have this mix of content and it will be interesting to see how it plans to differentiate itself," she says.
And the new title's name doesn't exactly conjure up the picture of a quality glossy set to revolutionise the market place. Kim Iwacnczyszyn, the group media manager at MediaCom, comments: "It suggests a home or family title and sounds a bit like a free newspaper supplement." She also points to the possible consumer confusion given BBC Magazines' "Easy" range of titles (Easy Food, Easy Decorating and Easy Gardening).
But Forbes seems undaunted by the task of emulating Conde Nast's hugely successful launch of Glamour in 2001, which quickly became the number-one women's monthly. "We are convinced we've got it right again," she says. "And for me, it's going to be a sharp learning curve but I feel this is my moment."
The Forbes file
1994 Elle, Insight editor
1995 Sky magazine, features editor
1995 Vogue, editor-at-large
1999 Vogue, senior editor
2001 Vogue, deputy editor
2004 Easy Living, editor
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