View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
January 12, 2006updated 22 Nov 2022 5:55pm

NatMags sees Real People as the answer to eight million ‘dissatisfied’ true-life fans

By Press Gazette

By Alyson Fixter

National Magazine Company execs claim there are eight million dissatisfied true-life fans in Britain who could find fulfilment in their high-profile new launch, the women’s weekly Real People.

ACP-NatMag, the company’s joint venture with Australian publisher ACP, has backed Real People with a £6m marketing budget and based it on 18 months of market research, including 40 focus groups and four separate dummies.

Launching the title into a crowded market, editor Vicky Mayer and chief operating officer Jessica Burley denied there might not be room for another title, saying their research had revealed 11 million readers in the UK who wanted to read true-life stories, despite total sales for the sector of about three million.

Bosses at The Sun publisher News International might also be pleased to hear the news, with their first magazine offering, a true-life weekly provisionally titled Love It!, due to appear early next month.

Burley said: “There has never been a better time for magazines, and for the weekly market in particular. The audience is one that responds well to good publishing.

“ACP-NatMag was set up specifically to launch weekly titles into the UK market and we have been working on doing that in the best way that we possibly can – I personally have never spent so much time on market research.”

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Editor Mayer said Real People, which hit newsstands on 12 January, offered a “Ronseal approach” to magazine publishing, with every page referring back to the real people of the title, from the celeb section (“they’re real people too”) to the “real diets” page which cuts out the experts and offers readerto- reader tips.

She added: “We’re basing this on good journalism and our journalists are going out and finding good stories, not waiting for them to come in.”

Extra reader pull comes from a full page of shopping tokens on page two and investment in papers and inks to guarantee “super-bright standout on the shelf”.

While the company was unwilling to make direct comparisons to other truelife titles on the market, chief executive Colin Morrison dismissed industry nervousness over News International’s entry into the magazines business.

“Just because they’re good at producing newspapers doesn’t mean they’ll automatically be good at producing magazines,” he told Press Gazette.

The title will be priced 60p, with a first-issue price of 30p, and will have a print run of over a million, a sign that the publisher is placing market leader Take a Break, which sells 1.2 million copies a week, in its sights.

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

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network