Lifetime Television, leading other cable networks in the
primetime-programming-ratings race, announced Thursday that it will enter the
women's-magazine arena next year.
Lifetime Magazine will be published jointly by Lifetime Entertainment
Services and the Hearst Magazines division of Hearst Corp. The latter, in
partnership with The Walt Disney Co., owns Lifetime Entertainment Services.
The publication will begin in March as a bimonthly, then go monthly starting
with the September 2003 issue. Its rate base will be 500,000.
The magazine will include content based on the cable programmer's Intimate
Portrait specials, as well as features linked to the theme of Lifetime's
monthly original movies, the companies said. It also will offer original content
on health, relationships, fashion and beauty, they added.
Lifetime -- which will carry the tag line, 'Real Life. Real Women' -- will
offer synergistic opportunities between Lifetime's several cable networks and
Web site and Hearst, which will have the ability to include the new magazine in
direct-mail and cross-marketing efforts for its other magazines, including
Good Housekeeping, O, The Oprah Magazine and Redbook.
The partners will also be able to include the new magazine in multiplatform
advertising deals, they said in the joint announcement.
Lifetime Entertainment Services CEO Carole Black said in a prepared
statement, '[Hearst's] track record with women's magazines is unparalleled.'
In an apparent reference to Oprah Winfrey's magazine, Hearst Magazines
president Cathleen Black added, 'From our experience, we know that a television
powerhouse brand can translate wonderfully well into a magazine.'
Sally Koslow, who previously was editor in chief of special-interest
publications at The New York Times Co.'s Women's Magazines unit, will be
Lifetime's editor in chief.
