Grazia, the new women’s weekly glossy will be Emap’s most expensive launch, the company revealed this week.
The weekly fashion, celebrity and lifestyle magazine will be launched in Spring 2005 with a budget of £16 million by the publishers of Heat and Zoo, Emap Consumer Media.
Former FHM editor David Davies will be Grazia ‘s managing director and Fiona McIntosh, former editor of Elle, will be editor-in-chief.
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Grazia will be produced in the UK under a 30-year licence from Italian publisher Mondadori, which first published the magazine in 1938. Today Italian Grazia offers news, fashion, beauty and lifestyle to upmarket readers for 1.80 euros (£1.25) and has a weekly circulation of 245,000.
Paul Keenan, chief executive of ECM, said: “We’re spending more on launching Grazia than any other magazine we’ve launched as it’s a very competitive market, there’s £500 million out there.
“Six million women read a glossy monthly or a celebrity weekly. Grazia is a broad title, it is very significant and expensive to produce.We want it to arrive with a large bang in the first year of its life.
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“We sought out Grazia from Mondadori as we have access to their fantastic experience. We believe the content will work in the UK, the magazine is famous in Europe for being synonomous with style and has great links with the Milanese fashion companies.”
ECM is aiming to sell a minimum of 150,000 copies of Grazia per week in its first year and is expecting to break even in three years. It will be aimed at 25 to 45-year-old ABC1 women.
The announcement of Grazi a’s arrival closely follows the launch of real life and celebrity magazine, Reveal , National Magazine’s second exploration into the weekly market.
There are currently 19 ABC registered women’s weekly magazines with a total average circulation of 8.4 million copies per week. Take a Break sells 1.2 million copies and Heat sells 540,556 copies per week. There is no existing women’s weekly aimed at the same demographic group as the monthly glossies.
“There is nothing like Grazia in the glossy market. We believe women will make time in their lives for it and the magazine will increase their spending as they buy a weekly glossy as well as a monthly,” added Keenan.
Further editorial staff for Grazia are yet to be announced but as the magazine is being launched in the Spring of 2005, Emap Consumer Media will be preparing to secure an editorial team in the run-up to Christmas.
By Caitlin Pike
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