To judge from the successful magazines of recent years, women are shallow creatures, obsessed with staring at pictures of celebrities (Heat) who are wearing the latest catwalk styles (InStyle, Glamour). When they are not doing that, they like to indulge their inner domestic goddess by poring over explanations of how to de-clutter their wardrobe or which fake flowers to buy (Woman & Home).
Trite stereotypes aside, magazines can reflect numerous facets of a women's life. But one area that has barely been addressed in these titles is the way in which women think and behave: their inner life. This is the subject of Hachette Filipacchi's UK launch, Psychologies, which hit the newsstands last week backed by a 拢2m poster campaign.
The magazine aims to address how women relate to others and themselves with features that refer to psychological research. This is inevitably a meatier read than the average women's magazine, but the Psychologies team tries to balance this with coverage of celebrities.
The launch issue features cover star Meg Ryan talking about her mid-life crisis, and musician Chrissie Hynde on her attitudes to life. Other features cover women's relationships with their mothers, and how to stop negative thinking. Celebrity columnists are clinical psychologist Oliver James, philosopher Alain de Botton and comedian-turned-psychologist Dr Pamela Connolly.
Celebrity features differ from the usual women's magazine fare in that they are much more focused on the subject's attitudes rather than their latest project. While it incorporates articles on beauty, food and travel, it comes from a uniquely Psychologies perspective - one feature asks what makes women alluring, while another brings readers details of escapist jobs from overseas.
Editorial mix
It is the kind of subject matter that people are increasingly interested in, says Julie Harris, general manager of the women's group at Hachette.
'There is much more interest now in issues of positive living. The Saturday Times launched its 'Body and Soul' section and we've noticed that Easy Living now has an emotional intelligence section.'
'We wanted to produce a title that combined the warmth and engagement of a magazine with the expert journalism and in-depth research that you would get from the broadsheet newspapers,' she adds.
Psychologies is a big hit in France, where it ranks third behind Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan with a circulation of 350,000. Hachette has more modest ambitions for the UK, aiming for 100,000. Following research, it has tweaked the editorial style to include more humour and practical features.
Unique readers
Hachette hopes Psychologies will prove sufficiently different to any other UK women's title that it will attract readers who do not regularly buy a magazine. Half the readers of the French edition fall into this category - a high proportion compared with most magazines.
If this can be replicated in the UK, it would be good news for marketers, though Mark Gallagher, press director at Manning Gottlieb OMD, does not expect new advertisers to flock in. 'The magazine market is hugely oversupplied.
There has been a 50% increase in the number of titles since 1990 but the revenue per magazine is about the same - it has only spread the wealth,' he says.
But media buyers who have studied Psychologies believe that its genuine point of difference could work commercially. 'It's a chunky read, much more intelligent and contains less psychobabble than I had feared,' says Rachel Gibbs McNeil, associate director at Carat. 'It really isn't the type of title that you would read at one sitting - I could imagine it hanging around the house and being dipped into throughout the month, which advertisers would love.'
Gibbs McNeil bought a page for her client American Express in the first issue; she says it would work for any advertiser trying to target 'smart women in a thoughtful environment'.
Vanessa Clifford, managing partner at MindShare, is a fan of the editorial product, but believes its novelty could work against the magazine if readers and advertisers cannot understand what it's about.
'It's a hard concept to explain. That will be its biggest challenge, especially as its targeting is more about attitude than life stage.' This lies behind Hachette's decision to send out about 1m copies of a sample issue at stations and with The Observer, Red and Elle Decoration.
In terms of women's interest in magazines, Hachette has picked a good time to launch. Year-on-year sales of glossy monthlies rose 20% in the most recent ABCs, with much of this growth fuelled by increases for titles aimed at over-35s - the group Psychologies is pitched at.
But do the success of titles that focus on home-making skills or fashion mean that women may shun weightier issues in a magazine? Marie Claire famously ended up adding more fashion coverage to its editorial mix to sustain appeal.
Psychologies editor Maureen Rice denies that it is necessarily a 'serious' title. 'Clearly it's not a fluffy read. But we'll be taking a very accessible angle on everything.' She maintains that the title will avoid the stigma of self-help by concentrating on applying a rigorous journalistic filter to the psychological research it refers to. 'There's a lot of dodgy research out there - we'll only be using what is valuable for our readers.'
Gibbs McNeil does not think Psychologies will be forced down the Marie Claire route, principally because its circulation target means it does not have to cater to the masses.
Ultimately, says Clifford, the recent success of women's magazine editorial covering home and fashion only confirms one of the key tenets of Psychologies' philosophy; that women are now free to indulge whichever aspect of their life most interests them.