Traditionally the purveyor of recipes and cleaning tips, women's
service magazines have come a long way, but apparently not far enough.
More than a decade ago, Real Simple and O, The Oprah Magazine packaged
service as lifestyle, forcing the category to pivot en masse. The Web
also has made free service content easily accessible, and young women
are more inclined to search online than pick up a magazine.
So, in the past year, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Family Circle,
Ladies' Home Journal and Woman’s Day—all facing long-term advertising
and newsstand sales declines—further downplayed their bread-and-butter
housecleaning, parenting and relationship advice in favor of fashion,
beauty, shopping and entertaining.
While service titles indulge readers with style and home decor and put
stars like Lauren Conrad on their covers, looking too much like fashion
and beauty titles risks alienating loyal readers.
Avoiding that trap means delivering the content in a way their readers expect. So instead of serving up fashion trends, Woman's Day
gives women tips on dressing for their body type and saving money by
shopping their closets. Unlike the typical fashion magazine, it also
shows women of varying sizes and ethnicities.
Redbook,
rather than confining plus-size style tips to their own page as fashion
books often do, sprinkles them prominently throughout the style
department.
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