In response to steadily falling circulations, and in part to the ongoing success of the celebrity weeklies, IPC has relaunched Woman to appeal to older women with a young attitude.
I applaud the sentiment. Of course being 40-plus does not automatically relegate your interests to sensible flat sandals and this is an audience still largely untapped by media owners.
By adjusting attitude rather than age group, Woman should continue to appeal to its 35-plus audience instead of watching its readership grow older. However, there are still some areas where the editorial content doesn't quite fit. It tries too hard to cover all life stages and ends up feeling unbalanced; first-time baby features do not sit comfortably next to 'life begins at 50' features.
But the revamp has gone a long way toward rejuvenating the title - I even managed to read it without feeling like I had borrowed one of my mother's magazines.
Publisher: IPC.
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