YES - Dominic Williams, Press director, Carat
ShortList Media will need to produce a magazine that appeals to consumers who are already well catered for in this sector.
Clients will also view this launch with apprehension following Sport's recent difficulties, during what will be a challenging autumn. That said, the success of Grazia has shown there to be a significant appetite for Stylist's proposed weekly content.
Its biggest challenge will be to make this content speak for itself, dismissing any stigma its free distribution might attach.
With an ambitious first print run, Stylist must meet the expectations of its audience without compromise. Consumers who already invest time and money on this content will expect no less from its free delivery and their engagement may take time to develop.
However, ShortList Media's experience and past success bodes well for an exciting launch that is to be welcomed.
YES - Colin Morrison, Former ACP-NatMags chief executive
All media firms should recognise two basic truths of these troubled times.
Firstly, many media sectors will be changed forever by the tormenting combination of deep recession and relentless online growth. Secondly, new economic models will help transform the landscape.
So, whatever life was like for you before 2009, it's probably not coming back. That is why ShortList Media's plans for an upmarket free women's weekly could catapult the publisher into the big time.
While ShortList Media just may be over-claiming its success in the so-so men's market, it is now preparing to go for women's market gold and at a time when many weeklies have been weakened by falling sales and lost profits.
Now it is chasing the big one, so stand by for the spoilers, the panic - and the eventual success of Stylist or something very like it.
NO - Andrew Stephens, Partner, Goodstuff
Gaps are good, we like gaps. Gaps allow consumers (and agencies) to compartmentalise a category's
product offering and distinguish between what's good and what's not.
But gaps also tend to exist because the major players in that category have already done the research and have deemed the gap to be no more than a hairline crack and left it alone. Stylist, I fear, is entering one of those.
The target market has more media provision than most - do they really need more paper and content? Aren't preferences moving onto digital platforms? Will the content be good enough to beat Condé Nast?
I don't believe fashion and cosmetic brands will take to it until the product is proven.
Expect a product full of retail and tactical offers.
YES - Marie O'Riordan, Former editor, Marie Claire
Stylist has every chance of success. Lisa Smosarski is an excellent editor and Mike Soutar simply does not compute failure. ShortList has firmly established itelf as a quality magazine in the free market.
Stylist is more likely to threaten Look, Heat and possibly Grazia, than Marie Claire and Vogue. These titans are too well-established in reader and advertising minds as authoritative, trusted and to be cherished, whereas the weeklies are less "sticky" in this disposable "free" culture.
The moneyed demographic of the glossy audience is invaluable to premium advertisers. Grazia's premium label status may protect it. Stylist on a ShortLlist budget cannot achieve the luxury fashion of either Grazia or the monthlies.
However, over time, a quality freebie will erode loyalty to the paid-for media. Why should magazines be any different to the paid-for newspapers?