She magazine is
to launch a pioneering Scottish edition next month, with a
specially-targeted cover, features section and diary pages.
According
to publisher, the National Magazine Company, the title is the first
women’s magazine to attempt a Scottish version, although newspapers
such as The Sun , Daily Mail and Daily Express publish Scottish
editions.
Editor Terry Tavner said she had suggested the idea of
the edition after receiving numerous letters from Scottish readers
criticising the title’s London-centricity.
The title currently
has about 18,000 readers in Scotland, but Tavner said she hoped to
increase circulation there with the She in Scotland edition.
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She added: “Scotland is very exciting at the moment, with all the changes taking place through devolution.
“It
has broken away to a certain extent, with its own education and
taxation systems, and it’s always been a great source of stories, so I
think it should have its own edition.
“Paris is actually closer to London than Glasgow, if you want to look at it that way.”
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The
first ever She in Scotland, which hits the newsstands early next month,
uses the same cover model as the general edition, but a different image
and coverlines, as well as giving more prominence to Scotland-based
features.
It also includes Scotland-exclusive stories, such as a
piece on a former Miss Scotland who spent £4,000 at a sperm bank to
enable her to have a baby.
The diary section will refer to events
in Scotland, while travel features will give details on flying from
northern airports rather than London-based ones.
Tavner said she and staff were “frazzled”
by the rush to create two editions with the existing team and admitted waiting for reaction to the move was “nerve-wracking”.
But she added: “We will suck it and see. I’m committed to doing this for six months to see how it works.
“I don’t want our readers in Scotland to feel isolated so I’m hoping this will give us a closer relationship with them.”
Tavner,
a former editor of both Chat and Woman’s Own , took up the editorship
of She in 2003, when she said she was determined to focus more on
hardnews features and less on celebrity.
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