IPC has lined up a number of top national newspaper journalists to work on its new upmarket weekly magazine Your Life.
Freelance writers Simon Reeve, Ann McFerran, Jean Rafferty, Jane Bussman, Maggie Alderson and Caryn Franklyn, former presenter of BBC1’s The Clothes Show, are among the contributors.
The £2m launch, aimed at women aged over 35 and fronted by Twiggy, has been kept a closely guarded secret until this week. IPC also announced the closure of Woman’s Realm, which will merge into Woman’s Weekly.
Mary Frances, editor of Woman’s Realm, has been working on a dummy for Your Life since September. "It’s always sad when a magazine closes but it is a sign of the times. We tried to make Woman’s Realm work but we couldn’t do it within the package of a classic weekly," she told Press Gazette.
Your Life will have an editorial team of 32, including all the former staff from Woman’s Realm. There have also been a number of internal changes, including practicals assistant Jacqui Bartley becoming editorial promotions executive and health assistant Sarah Taylor becoming features researcher.
Frances is to recruit three permanent staff, including a homes editor, as well as freelance sub-editors, designers and writers.
Staff were given just 30 days between board approval and the magazine’s launch next Tuesday.
The 76-page glossy will kick off with a 12-page news section called This Week. It will be followed by 20 pages of gardens, homes, fashion and travel and an eight-page Body & Soul supplement featuring advice on alternative health. The last two sections, Life Support and Life Matters, will include 20 pages of features.
Frances said the magazine would not feature recipes or first-person accounts of tragedies overcome.
By Ruth Addicott
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