The European edition of the weekly news magazine Time, is about to be repositioned to attract new younger readers. The revamp, backed by a major ad campaign, is the first significant change since the appointment in November of co-editors, husband and wife team Donald and Anne Morrison.
It is expected to include an increase in pagination and a bigger focus on IT, technology and style. Among the changes is a new style watch, business watch and tech watch section. The notebook section has been redesigned and the “people” page will be expanded to feature more Europeans. Time will also nominate a “person of the week” – an individual who has been particularly influential in the news – as an extension of its “person of the year” award. The magazine will continue its coverage of politics, culture, arts and economics.
Emma Gilpin, Time and Fortune Group’s director of public affairs, said the title would feature more graphics. The masthead would stay the same but the overall look would be “cleaner” and more modern, with sharper editorial pieces.
“We are trying to attract more younger readers,” she said. “The core reader now is aged between 35-55 and we want to bring it down to 21-45. A lot of advertisers want to reach people with disposable income and they tend to be younger.” There are plans to focus specifically on the UK, France and Germany.
The changes follow research and changing demographics, but the publishers also wanted to distinguish it from the US edition. “People still confuse us with Time in America and we have different covers and different content. Now we want to take this European-ness one step further and make it more funky and up to date,” Gilpin said. “We feel confident there will be a significant uplift in news-stand and subscription sales.” The magazine has a current readership of 1.9 million across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Research found 46 per cent of news-stand readers and 45 per cent of subscribers had read Time for more than 10 years. The revamp is due to appear on 26 March.
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