IPC Media title Woman’s Weekly celebrates its 100th anniversary this week by reprinting the first ever edition of the magazine in its entirety as part of a 132-page edition.
The first edition was published on 4 November 1911 with a cover price of 1d (one old penny) and sold around 500,000 copies.
It reached its peak in 1950 when it regularly sold more than two million copies a week.
According to its latest ABC figures Woman’s Weekly was the best performing title in the women’s weekly market with a 0.4 per cent rise in year-on-year sales to 339,993 in the first half of this year, making it one of only two titles to increase sales in the sector along with Hello magazine.
Editor Diane Kenwood said: ‘When she launched the magazine, my original predecessor set out a clear vision which stated: ‘I say frankly that the women of Mayfair and the lady who lives in the castle are not catered for in this paper.
‘But the women who lives in the villa or the cottage, in a large house or a small house, the woman who rules the destines of the home, is going to be helped in her life, her work and her recreation by this journal’.
‘Remaining faithful to this original blueprint has been the core principle of the magazine for the past 100 years and is, I firmly believe, the reason why it remains the number one best seller in its market [mature women’s magazines].”
Publishing director Sandy Gale said: ‘The past one hundred years of Woman’s Weekly provides a unique record of the lives of women and social issues of the last century and it remains as resolutely and proudly relevant to its hundreds of thousands of readers today.’
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
