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Glamour supersizes print and puts digital first

Lauretta Roberts
17 November 2016

Glamour is ditching its once ground-breaking "handbag-sized" magazine format and going supersized in print from early next year. A new content strategy will also put digital channels at the forefront for its mobile-obsessed millennial consumer base.

The magazine was launched to much fanfare by Condé Nast 15 years ago and, while its rivals treated it with derision when it arrived, Glamour went on to become the best selling women's monthly magazine in part thanks to its portable format.

Within three years of its launch it had overtaken its main rival (Hearst's Cosmopolitan) and was selling 580,000 issues per month. However Glamour has not been immune to the general downturn in magazines and its gross circulation dropped by 18.9% in the first half of 2016 to 300,063, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. Old rival Cosmopolitan achieved a circulation of 413,155.

In a bid to meet the demands of its millennial audience its print product will go large-format for the February 2017 edition, published in early January, and will be produced on higher-quality paper to position it as an indulgent read rather than something to "snack" on throughout the day.

But the brand will be placing digital, and in particular mobile, at the forefront of its strategy. It is moving to a new mobile-first digital platform, which the publisher said was better suited to its “smartphone-dominated audience on the move”, and will be launching a new Glamour video channel.

Editor Jo Elvin, who has been at the helm since its launch, said the brand had always embraced digital and as such "Glamour has never reached more people than it does now". Adding, "As the context has changed, now is the moment to recalibrate in response to our readers’ changing lifestyle and needs."

Last month InStyle, published by Time Inc, revealed that it would be halting publication of its print edition and would be working closing with its US counterpart to create a digital-only editorial proposition.

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