By Lou Thomas
Emap’s new women’s weekly, to be launched in early summer, will be inspired by factual entertainment TV programmes while aiming to give readers a wider perspective on the world.
The magazine, which hasn’t been named but currently goes under the title of ‘Project Jackie’, has a launch budget of £12 million.
It will be edited by Julian Linley, former deputy editor of Heat. Emap Entertainment— the company’s celebrity and women’s weekly arm — hopes to reach a circulation of between 150,000 and 200,000 within the magazine’s first year.
Emap Entertainment managing director Louise Matthews said: "Part of the inspiration for the title has been the rise of factual entertainment as a TV programming strand.
"That can be anything from Supernanny to Newsround to Jamie’s School Dinners to Planet Earth.
"It’s about these women enjoying and increasing their consumption of factual entertainment because it gives them a broader perspective on the world."
The magazine is aimed at the "modern, thinking mum" who wants a bit more out of life, and who has been through early motherhood and settled into her first home and first big relationship.
Matthews added: "She has probably had kids about five years ago, she’s just resurfacing from that early motherhood stage when you’re just completely immersed in being a mum.
"She’s matured through her hedonistic 20s and now she’s quite capable of balancing her magazine diet by adding a new title, something a little bit different and more empowering.
"She still loves her voyeuristic mix of celebrities [and] she’s still interested in the disposable nature of some of the real-life mags, but this gives her a wider perspective."
Matthews said Project Jackie was aimed at women who had "an investment in society".
She added: "It’s not just the local community, it’s much more about what’s going on in the world and how she needs to be up to speed on all of that, because this is the world that her kids are going to grow up in."
On the cost of the launch, Matthews commented: "It’s about what we spent on Grazia and Closer.
"If you’re launching a mass-market weekly magazine now, it’s kind of what you need to spend.
"It is an obscene amount of money, but it’s the kind of money that you need now to make a success of a launch."
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