Project Honey editor sets out plans for Look

The editor of IPC’s biggest magazine launch for 2007 – codenamed Project Honey – has told Press Gazette the magazine will appeal to a different market than established weekly Grazia by concentrating on high street fashion.

After months of speculation, IPC Media has finally revealed further details of Project Honey – which will be called Look and is a joint venture with Groupe Marie Claire.

Set to hit the shelves on Tuesday 6 February, Look is the result of 18 months intensive development and an investment of £18 million.

In her first interview, Look’s editor Ali Hall told Press Gazette: ‘We’ve just found a niche in what women want and we’ve decided to use that. I see this as being a magazine in its own right. Obviously everyone is comparing us to Grazia because that’s the only weekly fashion magazine out there.’Look claims to be aimed at a ‘new generation’of women – 18- to 30-year-old females who have left home but are yet to settle down, with a disposable income and who are enjoying a ‘decade of indulgence”. Hall explained that after a lot of research, IPC has cornered women’s ‘twin obsessions’– celebrity and fashion – and that they’re offering something different.

‘Firstly we’re concentrating on high street fashion,’said Hall. ‘There’s been a huge fashion-retail revolution. Fashion now is very fast. It’s disposable and it’s accessible – girls don’t mind buying something, wearing it once on a Saturday night and then chucking it away. It isn’t a bad thing not to be wearing designer clothes, people actually feel fine about saying: ‘Oh, I got this from Primark’. Really we’re a celebration of high street fashion, which is very different to what Grazia is doing.’Their emphasis on fashion is reflected in the editorial team. Out of a team of 40 people, eight are concentrating solely on fashion and beauty will be a separate team.

On the celebrity side, Look will have a ‘warm and friendly tone’as opposed to Heat and Closer’s more critical approach to celebs. ‘The way we look at celebs is not in any sort of a bitchy way. We’re not bothered about celebrities and their spots and cellulite, we’re a lot more interested in their relationships,’said Hall.

The cover price, expected to be below Grazia’s £1.80, is yet to be disclosed.