Glossy diet club magazine, Weight Watchers, has increased its frequency to monthly and expanded its editorial team, as obesity has risen up the news agenda.
The magazine, published by River Publishing, produced nine copies in 2007 and eight copies in 2006, targeting peaks in diet interest from consumers after Christmas and in the Summer.
Editor Mary Frances told Press Gazette: ‘A sign of our success was that the issues we were publishing were selling really well right through the period. We broadened the remit, so it is about Weight Watchers, but it’s also about healthy living, fitness and having a healthier lifestyle. There is interest in that all-year round now, which coincided with the debate on obesity and how we can all be healthier. That isn’t so seasonal, it’s working all the way through the year.”
Frances has hired three new editorial staff – a features editor, a sub-editor and a designer, increasing her editorial team to 13.
She said: ‘It means we can be more topical. With things like fashion and beauty we can get something nearer the turnaround.
‘That was very hard to manage before, because we were working so far in advance and we couldn’t tie in with what was in the shops. Now we’re on the same schedules as the consumer monthlies.”
The magazine now has more fashion pages, helping women who have lost weight ‘reinvent themselves”.
Weight Watchers’ average circulation for the five issues produced in the first half of 2007 was 250,649.
River Publishing has been producing Weight Watchers since January 2006, when it took over from CastlebarPublishing.
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