Germans U-turn to launch women’s weekly

German publishing giant Hubert Burda Media has announced it will
launch a mass market women’s real life and celebrity weekly called Full
House on Tuesday, March 8th.

The announcement comes days after the company
denied rumours about the launch, claiming it had “no concrete plans” to
enter the UK market.

Full House will provide “real life stories with a
celebrity twist” and is being headed up by Alan Urry as chief executive
of Hubert Burda Media UK.

Urry retired as MD at rival Bauer, publisher of Take A Break, in July last year.

Other ex-Bauer staff involved in the launch
include editor Carl Styants, former deputy editor of Take A Break, and
ex-Take A Break publisher Simon Hesling, who is now MD of Hubert Burda
Media UK.

A spokesman for Burda said: “The magazine is set
to redefine the weekly market by offering a combination of real life
stories, celebrity interviews and entertainment in a way that current
titles do not.

“In research, readers clearly identified Full
House as a magazine which stands out from existing weekly categories by
combining these three elements in a new, bright and breezy format.”

Full
House is the third new women’s weekly magazine to launch this year.
Up-market lifestyle glossy Grazia was launched three
weeks ago by Emap and IPC’s real-life magazine Pick Me
Up hit newsstands in January.