New glossy is more than just a pretty face

It doesn't take an industry expert to realise that the women's magazine market is overcrowded. Walk into any newsagent's and around 20 front covers will face you ­ all offering celebrity gossip, beauty tips and methods of improving your sex life.

Many have tried and failed to make it big in the market. The relaunch of Nova, which had its heyday in the 1970s, backfired and publisher IPC closed the magazine in May. Frank and Minx were other titles that launched with a great fanfare but exited with a whimper.

But now it looks like three newcomers might finally get a foothold on the nation's newsstands. Glamour, already a hit in the US, was launched in the UK in April with a celebrity-heavy editorial policy (this month's issue featured Liv Tyler on the front cover, last month's had Rachel Weisz and April's Kate Winslet). According to unofficial figures, it is already proving a success.

Real, a new fortnightly magazine that "delivers a feast for the mind and the heart", according to editor Janice Turner, has also done well. Then there is InStyle, another publication that has already established itself in the US. All three have industry heavyweights behind them ­ Condé Nast, H Bauer and AOL Time Warner respectively ­ so their immediate future is secure.

The new launches come as the women's market has its biggest shake-up in years. Several magazine publishing companies have recently been put up for sale. Attic Futura, which publishes B magazine and the teenage title Sugar, is being sold by its Australian parent company Pacific Magazine Publishers. Meanwhile, private equity house Cinven is also rumoured to be wanting to sell out of IPC, whose non-Nova titles include Marie Claire, Woman's Journal and Essentials. An offer from AOL Time Warner was turned down last week.

The large publishers are experiencing problems. Emap, which has Elle and New Woman in its stable and used to publish Minx, recently lost chief executive Kevin Hand. Another Emap title, Red, saw big falls in sales last year, as did IPC's Marie Claire.

Executives and editors will be chewing on their perfectly manicured fingernails as they await sales figures for the first half of the year from the industry's circulation auditor, ABC, showing how the new launches have affected them. But just because a new magazine is popular doesn't mean more established brands will fail.

A total of £20m has been spent on promoting the new magazines this spring. For their launches, InStyle and Glamour both had advertising budgets of £5m. Both had billboard and TV ads. Glamour had a joint promotion with L'Oréal, and sold issues in the clothing retailer Dorothy Perkins, while InStyle worked with cosmetics companies Clinique and Estée Lauder. Glamour's Jo Elvin appears on Showbiz Weekly on Sky and InStyle's fashion editor appears on a similar show for GMTV.

The hard work seems to have paid off. Glamour's publisher, Simon Kippin, says the first issue sold out in more than a third of high-street retail outlets and a reprint was necessary. Unofficially, the company's sums show the launch issue had sales of over 500,000 ­ more than any of its rivals. And sales of subsequent issues have stayed steady at above 400,000.

In the monthly women's glossy lifestyle market, there are two big players ­ Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire, selling over 460,000 and 400,000 respectively a month. Glamour has catapulted itself into the big league within a few months, beating its targets by more than 40 per cent. Real is also hot on the heels of the industry giants. The fortnightly publication says it has sold an average of 360,000 copies for the first three issues. This does include the initial launch issue, however, which is always high because of the large amount of advertising.

InStyle is more tight-lipped about its sales figures, but publisher Katy Egan says the magazine is on track to reach its 150,000 target by the end of the year. This is much lower than those for the other new launches, but the magazine is targeting a smaller, more upmarket readership. The big gals in this area are Vogue and Elle, which have circulations between 200,000 and 225,000.

InStyle tries to distinguish itself with relatively fewer models in the magazine ­ clothes are laid out flat rather than appearing on lithe, attractive women. Prices and shops' phone numbers are clearly displayed, making it easy for busy women to buy the products.

"The pages are like walking into a shop and women can pick out what they want," says editor Dee Nolan.

Glamour, on the other hand, says one of its biggest selling points is its size ­ it's half the size of most magazines on offer and can fit into a woman's handbag ­ a fact that has been marketed heavily. Focus group research before the launch found that this tactic would be a winner.

The other essential element is price. The industry had thought Glamour's cover price of £1.50 was an introductory offer, but publisher Mr Kippin says it's set at that for the foreseeable future.

Yet despite the competition, Marie Claire's owners are still positive. Tim Brooks, the IPC director in charge of glossy magazines, says: "We will be reporting a modest decline for this six months. But in the latter half of the year we will see a bounce back." Cosmopolitan also denies it has seen much change in circulation.

Perhaps a more serious threat to the big names in the market has been the targeting of women by national newspapers in recent years. This has been of particular concern to Marie Claire, which is known for its reportage on issues affecting women.

Marie Claire has a new editor, Marie O'Riordan. But any idea that this will signal a change in style to combat the national papers is rubbished by IPC's Mr Brooks.

"We have an approach that assumes the reader is intelligent and takes an interest in the world around them. Marie [the editor] is making sure everything we do reinforces that established appeal," he says.

Cosmopolitan editor Lorraine Candy says that the launch of Glamour is not a worry for her. "[Glamour's] a good magazine ­ I'm impressed by it," she says. "Every three or four years a magazine says 'We are the new Cosmopolitan' but only Marie Claire has been successful."

And she adds that there will be no change of tactic at Cosmo. "You don't start mucking about with the magazine ­ we will just consolidate what we do best."

Maybe the top dogs won't be too hard done by. But life could soon be a lot tougher for the smaller names in the market.