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April 1, 2004updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

Soap mag boosts team in move to fortnightly

By Press Gazette

All About Soap’s Cowan says it’s ‘natural evolution’ to go fortnightly

All About Soap has increased its frequency from monthly to fortnightly and more than doubled its editorial team to cater for the extra workload.

The first fortnightly issue will appear on 6 April with a day-by-day TV guide and several new sections, including a celebrity problem page.

Editor Lorna Cowan said the move was prompted by Inside Soap – also published by Hachette Filipacchi – switching in August from fortnightly to become the UK’s only soap weekly.

In the recent ABCs, All About Soap’s circulation went up by 11 per cent to 112,127.

“It is a natural evolution for All About Soap to move into that fortnightly slot,” said Cowan. “We will have a lot of new people on board with a lot of new ideas so we can go forth with lots of fresh talent.”

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She said that during research and focus groups, 80 per cent of readers said they would buy All About Soap if it was a fortnightly title.

The new publishing slot is expected to result in more gossip, comment from actors and reaction to storylines.

A section called “Two weeks in the life of…” will chart the highs and lows of a TV character, and a problem page has been added that will put the dilemmas of the soap characters to real life advice experts. Cowan has also introduced a 14-day TV listings guide to replace the summarised previews featured previously.

The editorial team of five has been strengthened with the creation of six roles. TV star Lucy Pargeter, who plays Chastity Dingle in Emmerdale, has been signed up to write a showbiz column following her successful stint as guest editor.

Polly Buchanan has joined as staff writer from More!’s website; former freelances Mark Wright and Brian O’Sullivan have joined as chief subeditor and deputy picture editor respectively; Jakki Kirk, formerly with PA Listings, joins as a sub, and Claire Botwright, who did work experience on a number of Hachette titles, becomes editorial assistant.

Cowan is also recruiting a deputy art editor.

All About Soap’s size (68 pages) and cover price (£1.30) remain unchanged.

By Ruth Addicott

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

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