New! debuted on newsstands this morning with a cover price of 60p. It had been thought that the magazine would launch last Thursday, so much so that Emap last week cut the £1 price of its celebrity title Closer by 50% in an effort to hit the launch of what was going to be Wow!. Emap's Heat is priced at £1.40 and market-leader Now has a price tag of £1.10.
The 60p price tag is likely to have an impact on all three of its rivals in the same way that Desmond's launch of the Daily Star Sunday hit Trinity Mirror's The People and The Sunday Mirror.
The magazine is being edited by Kirsty Mouatt and is promising to give the market a "kick up the backside". Speaking to Desmond's in-house media columnist Anil Bhoyrul in the Sunday Express, she said New! was offering a much "slicker mix of news, pictures and gossip every week for about half the price".
"When this comes out I wonder how many people will still want to bother reading something like Heat."
The first issue includes pictures of Desmond's favourite celebrity Victoria Beckham looking "shockingly skinny".
Mouatt is understood to have been working on the launch for several months and has hired a team that is reported be 21 strong, including journalists from the celebrity magazine sector and writers from Emap's More and IPC's 19.
New! has an initial print run of around 700,000 and is targeting an audience of ABC1 women in their late 20s.
The launch is being backed by a TV advertising campaign, produced in-house.
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