New Bauer mag for women over 50 called Yours, with digital strategy focused on Facebook
Connolly
Bauer Media Group’s new magazine for women over 50 will be named Yours after its UK counterpart, with a digital strategy aimed
solely at Facebook according to editor-in-chief Fiona Connolly.
While holding onto her job as editor-in-chief of Women’s Day, Connolly, who joined Bauer Media from News Corp’s Daily Telegraph in 2009, has now also taken on Yours, which she promises will be a very different title.
As Mumbrella revealed earlier this month Bauer is releasing the fortnightly magazine on February 2, with a $2m marketing campaign. For Connolly, things are getting down to “the nail-biting finish.”
One of the key differentiators from Woman’s Day for Yours is a focus on real life, not celebrities, with “useful and interesting content for an informed readership”.
The typical reader, Connolly said, is 58, but she feels 14 years younger. She’s young at heart, fashionable, modern and energetic.
“That stereotype of a greying 50-year-old woman who doesn’t care about her appearance anymore is absolutely not the case,” Connolly said.
“They’re very influential and they’re big decision makers across three generations as the younger generation looks up to them and the older generation, their own parents, are looking to them for advice, so they know they have to look after their health and finances.”
At the heart of the publication is a section called “Good to Know” with 18 pages of advice in the first issue, covering everything from gardening to gynecology, technology and financial affairs.
The mag will also have a strong sense of “community with a Yours ‘club’ filling the traditional letters pages with readers’ photos, stories and cooking tips.
And the magazine will extend the brand and aim to strengthen this sense of community by hosting events with inspirational speakers, and focusing its digital strategy solely on social media and specifically Facebook.
“We know Facebook is a huge part of this demographic’s lives and they are very active on it so we have got some great content to launch with the magazine,” Connolly told Mumbrella. There are no other plans for a digital strategy yet, she said.
While many are retreating from print research by both Bauer and Roy Morgan suggests magazine readership is increasing in this demographic, which is not currently serviced by a mainstream magazine in Australia.
The Roy Morgan research suggests women over 50 read more magazines in 2013 than they did in 2009, and spend around an hour and a half reading them each week.
“By targeting women between 50 and 65, Bauer are connecting with a group that isn’t well catered for, but which represents a potentially lucrative market for savvy advertisers,” said George Pesutto, Roy Morgan’s general manager of media and communications.
“These women generally have a higher net worth than younger women, and are more likely to feel financially stable, yet often feel excluded by youth-focused advertising and media.”
Connolly claimed there has been growing interest from in long-term involvement with Yours, and brands in the categories of travel, beauty and health supplements are among those featured in the first issue.
“Advertising clients really recognise the importance of this segment and we had a lot of interest and enthusiasm around the launch especially so we’re having lots of conversations with a number of advertisers,” she said.
Connolly steps into her new dual role as editor-in-chief across two titles months after Bauer brought its Cleo and Dolly magazines under one editor-in-chief, Lucy Cousins, who took on the dual role in November,
Assisting her will be Yours editor Lisa Sinclair, the former editor of Bauer’s NW magazine, and deputy editor of Woman’s Day Claire Isaac who will step up into the editor’s role. Connolly said some of their journalists will work across both titles, and some will be dedicated specifically to one.
Bauer has recently come under scrutiny for rebadging international syndicated content in real-life magazine Take5 as local content, a practice it claims to have stamped out. Although Yours can syndicate content from other publications and from the UK version, Connolly said they do not intend to.
“Yours in the UK is quite a different proposition,” she said. “First and foremost this is very homegrown magazine filled with local content so yes we’ll look to other Bauer titles in this category for ideas, whether it be a feature idea or something as simple as a headline or caption, but it’s certainly content that is being produced here locally on the whole.”
Celebrity exclusives, like the photos of a pregnant Kate Middleton in her bikini that Connolly controversially published last year, will not be of interest to readers of Yours, she added.
The new title will have a “very brief brushstroke on celebrity”, Connolly said, as although there will be a celebrity interview featured on the cover of the first issue, and a celebrity diary from contributors such as Denise Drysdale or Kathy Lette, they will only make up a small part of the content.
Human interest stories about ordinary Australians who have done extraordinary things will feature just as strongly, as will short fiction and articles on subjects such as food and travel, all tailored to the older woman.
“It’s about as varied as you could possibly conjure up,” Connolly said.
“It’s very different from Woman’s Day in so many ways. It’s no accident that I’m across the two titles because the amount of content that has come across my desk in the last five years that I haven’t been able to place and hasn’t had a place until now.
“It’s just a great opportunity to be directing content to the left and to the right, so I’m able to service a greater female readership and it’s been a long time coming.”
A “$2m marketing campaign” doesn’t count, especially if the ads appear in other Bauer titles which are very mags you claim not to be cannibalising.
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hundred bucks – 6 months tops
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Has anyone noticed that the readers of Woman’s Day and The Australian Women’s Weekly are actually skewed to 50+women? 50+ magazines have never worked – staid and boring. They are incontinence pads of the magazine market. No one really wants to go there. Good luck.
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Depends if they really do nail the content. I LOVE magazines, but as an “on the way to 50” woman who I suspect like many, behaves as a 35 year old or even younger person might have years ago, there isn’t a product in the market to suit me.
The ones that come even half way close still smack too deeply of an obsession with appearance and youthful celebrity that I simply don’t have, or seem to assume I spend my life cooking for a family that I don’t have, and that I ought to be thinking about putting a funeral plan in place – tempting as THAT sounds, I think I’ll pass.
However, I would LOVE a magazine that actually had some content I really wanted in it – interesting articles that genuinely focused on real women without the “You ain’t ma reeeeel daddy” approach, excellent travel articles for people with the money to do interesting things, but who think there’s little point in staying in the Sheraton – seen one, seen ’em all. I’d love to see some great “real” fashion that doesn’t require you to be a 17 year old super model, but nor does it make you think “I’d rather die than wear that nanna horror”. Health and well being articles that actually assume your IQ is somewhat above double digits, and food articles that know the correct answer to the question “What are you making for dinner?” is, almost always…..”A phone call” at the moment, because I don’t need to make 30 minute meals for my non existent kids, and nor do I need to cook impressive dinner parties more than say twice a month…….
Fingers crossed they actually manage to come up with something interesting that doesn’t patronise and caters to the right audience.
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Using Facebook solely is not a digital strategy. Give it 3 months. Tops.
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With her stereotypes firmly in place, Fiona shows why she is an editor of woman’s Day, one of the least respected mags around. Memo Fiona; the only people who think grey hair automatically goes with not caring about your appearance are superficial people and those who get to edit gossip mags. May I suggest the outcome will be grim unless there are major reality checks, most women of 50 know what they like and what they don’t and wont waste time on rubbish or condescending pap. That said, good luck to them I hope it succeeds.
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They’re late to the market … We’ve been running online publication Starts at Sixty http://www.startsatsixty.com.au for nine months with great success in the online space featuring real content… from real community… We’ve got over 150,000 pageviews a month, and a facebook engaged like ratio of 100%….
Who wants print when you can have digital and incredible engagement!
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Congratulations on a great first issue. Totally enjoyed every article from cover to cover. There is something for all mature age women.
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Is that meant to be a picture of a woman over 50? If so I don’t think they quite understand their target audience…
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Nope, I didn’t read the article at all. My bad
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The yours club exclusive events and special offers
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