Independently-owned magazine Yorkshire Women’s Life, which was set up with the help of a grant from the publicly-funded Millennium Commission, is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
The magazine was established in 2001 by editor Dawn-Maria French with funding from Europe and the Millennium Commission, which distributed funds from the National Lottery before it was wound down in 2006.
Yorkshire Women’s Life launched following extensive telemarketing research to find out local tastes, trialling in both A4 and A5 format before settling on the latter.
It now has 15,000 paid subscribers, comes out three times a year and costs £10 a year in the UK, £19.50 in the EU and £40 in the rest of the world.
French said that around 30 per cent of its subscribers are based outside the UK, mainly women who have left the region and want to maintain links.
When it first launched it was entirely ‘news and issues led’but since then has evolved to include more lifestyle and travel features to accommodate reader demand.
When it started French felt most magazines targeted at women were either celebrity or fashion-led and she said there was ‘nothing in the middle”.
‘It was a bit of a gamble,’she said. ‘But obviously it’s paid off – we’ve been going for a decade now.’
The magazine also features book reviews, celebrity interviews, restaurant and health spa reviews, high street fashion and international women’s news.
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