The contract publisher has hired Dawn Greiller, publisher of Health & Fitness, as Shape's new publisher. Annabel Meggeson will be editor.
River managing director Edward Axon conceded the launch of Shape was a bold move, given the competitiveness of the women's magazine sector. According to the latest magazine ABCs last August, the women's lifestyle market for monthlies was largely flat.
The launch of IPC's weekly Look boosted the sector to an increase of 3.1% in the first half of 2007 from the same period a year earlier.
The revamped Shape, to be published 11 times a year, will launch on 2 April priced at £3.10.
Shape was last published in the UK in 2004 by Dennis Publishing.But Axon said: "It is not a relaunch; it is a launch. Dennis is a good publisher, but when it owned Shape it was concentrating on Maxim."
However, one press buyer said: "I don't think there is any room in the market for it. And every newspaper and magazine supplement also has a health or beauty section."
Targeting the successful 30-something woman, Shape is being repositioned as a top-end self-improvement bible.
River expects Shape's circulation to be 75,000 and it will distribute 150,000 copies of the first issue. The title will have a news-stand presence in 15,000 outlets of WHSmith, Asda, M&S, Tesco, Waitrose, the Co-op and Morrisons.
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