The paid-for women’s lifestyle magazine Dare – currently distributed in Superdrug stores – is to be handed-out free in UK cities, increasing its circulation to 750,000 in a move which it claims makes it the UK’s first free women’s monthly.
Dare magazine, published by customer publisher River Publishing, was launched last year and is currently sold for 50p in Superdrug. It will still be available in Superdrug but without a cover price, and will be distributed in cities including London, Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle, outside stations and in the city centres.
Ed Axon, managing director at River Publishing, told Press Gazette that the recent developments in the free market – the success of free men’s weeklies Sport and Shortlist – made it more attractive to both them and Superdrug, and added that the success of the magazine in its first year gave them confidence in the switch.
Close relationship
He said: ‘We felt that the product was so good, that the benefits for acquisition and retention in getting it into more people’s hands could not be ignored. The advertisers were incredibly supportive in our thought process as no other magazine in this sector could offer such a close relationship with its readers with such measurable results.”
Dare has recorded a circulation of 271,263 for the first half of 2007. With a new circulation of 750,000, the magazine will rocket to the top of the women’s lifestyle sector, the top spot currently held by Debenham’s Desire, which recorded a circulation of 747,251 for the first half of 2007.
Axon said that Superdrug was keen to have the biggest women’s monthly magazine, and that there would be no editorial changes in the magazine, which offers a mix of celebrity news, beauty and fashion.
‘We haven’t lost sight of the fact that we’re still asking women to read it – it has the same credentials as a paid-for monthly magazine, but has the pace of a weekly.”
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
