Mollin Publishing is to introduce two monthly health titles, Shape
and Men’s Fitness, to the UK market next spring and is talking to
creative and media agencies about a proposed pounds 1.4 million launch
advertising task.
The recently established UK publishing house plans to appoint an agency
next week.
Shape will be a perfect-bound glossy magazine for women, broadly
covering health and lifestyle issues. Men’s Fitness takes a similar
approach for male readers.
Mollin was unwilling to comment on the target age groups for both
magazines. The titles will have a print run of between 150,000 and
200,000.
John Woollcombe, managing director of Mollin, said: ’If we build the
editorial expertise in health and fitness and build advertising
relationships, we can develop other magazines that may be appropriate.
In the medium term we will branch out and have drawn together people who
will enable us to devise other publishing areas.’
Stephen Fern, launch editor of Conde Nast’s GQ Active, will edit Men’s
Fitness, while Sharon Walker, the former editor of Health & Fitness,
will edit Shape. Dylan Jones, a Sunday Times journalist and a former
group editor at Wagadon, is acting as an editorial consultant for the
group.
Terry Grimwood, Mollin Publishing’s marketing director, said he was
aiming for an editorial/advertising ratio of 65 to 35 in the magazines.
He added: ’We are going for mainstream consumer, health, fitness and
clothing advertisers.’
Mollin has a licensing deal with the American publisher, Weider
Publications, which produces Shape and Men’s Fitness in the US.
