Gritty: She editor Terry Tavner (centre) has focused on hard-news features
Women’s lifestyle magazine She is looking to balance its coverage by introducing hard-hitting news features.
The monthly has attracted huge media interest after running a feature about the “extraordinary friendship” of Brighton Grand Hotel bomber Patrick Magee and Jo Berry, the daughter of MP Sir Anthony Berry who was killed in the blast.
It was the first time the pair were interviewed together since the IRA bombing left five people dead and many injured 20 years ago during the Tory Party conference.
The Press Association contacted She’s editor Terry Tavner asking to use quotes from the piece and The Independent ran parts of the interview, with a credit, as a page lead.
Tavner believes women are becoming disillusioned with too much celebrity culture. “Women’s magazines can be so celebrity orientated and I think women are bored. Of course women want fashion and beauty pages but as well as wanting them to go away knowing what shoes and clothes to wear I want them to have been intellectually challenged.”
The layout and design of the feature was different to separate it from the rest of the magazine.
Tavner added: “The photograph of the two of them together is so arresting, you can see that Pat can barely meet Jo’s gaze. We have a newsy font, the idea is to make it look more compelling.
It has every part of a human interest story, but with knobs on.”
Recently She ran a story about OJ Simpson’s sister-in-law and a feature on infanticide. According to Tavner, lots of readers wrote in expressing their interest in such stories and she intends to include them in every issue.
By Sarah Lagan
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