Fab Five member to relaunch Woman’s Day

Fab Five member to relaunch Woman’s Day

ACP Media today announced that Carson Kressley of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy fame will relaunch Woman’s Day, New Zealand’s number one selling women’s title, on 1 November. Over $2 million has been invested in the relaunch to create a bigger, better, bolder new-look publication.

“The relaunch of Woman’s Day is like a make-over for the magazine – it ‘tjuzes’ it up,” said Carson.

Carson Kressley is the fashion savant for the ‘Fab Five’ – a talented group of gay men that has rocketed to international stardom for the TV show in which they transform the looks and lives of hapless ‘straight guys’, overhauling everything from homes, haircuts and personal grooming to food, culture and fashion.

An A-list celebrity event will be held in Auckland on 1 November at which Carson will be the guest of honour. The event will be a glittering affair that celebrates everything the new-look Woman’s Day represents – inspiration, entertainment and escapism. As part of the evening’s entertainment, Carson will “makeover” local celebrities and winners of a Woman’s Day “makeover” competition.

“Getting Carson to relaunch Woman’s Day is a real coup,” said Debra Millar, ACP Media’s Group Publisher – Consumer Titles.

“The Fab Five encompass everything that Woman’s Day stands for – celebrities, fashion, food and beauty trends. The magazine has had a fundamental role in creating a local celebrity culture, and I couldn’t imagine anyone more appropriate to formally relaunch it.”

In his professional life, Carson is an independent stylist. He spent many years working with Polo Ralph Lauren in New York, specialising in the design aspect of the men's sportswear division. He also supervised fashion styling for the company's national retail advertising campaigns.

And his fashion advice for the launch?

“Comfortable is nice but confident is better; confidence breeds sexiness. If you feel good about the way you look, you're going to be confident and successful. That's sexy, and it's always going to show.”

And for men: “Buy your own tuxedo; only losers rent. Make it a classic silhouette with beautiful lapels. Add a regular pleated shirt and please, tie your own bow tie. Use magazines for inspiration. If you see something you like in a magazine, bring the picture along to a store and find things just like it. Dare to be different with a coloured jacket — see for yourself how beautiful pink can be.”

Woman’s Day is the biggest-selling women's magazine in New Zealand with a circulation of 142,610 and readership of 847,000. The relaunched title will have a larger format (297m x 225mm), glossier, heavier stock, increased number of pages, new sections and new content. Under a new contract with First in Print, Woman’s Day will be printed in New Zealand. It will be available on the newsstands from 1 November 2004.

“The relaunch of Woman’s Day in November reinforces ACP Media’s position as a leading publisher of a whole stable of popular and premium magazine titles. It will be another milestone in our dynamic growth path, which has been marked by the launch of new titles including FQ Men, Gourmet Traveller Wine and NZ Motorhomes Caravans & Destinations and enhancements to other signature local magazine brands like North & South,” said Heith Mackay-Cruise, CEO of ACP Media.

Facts and figures on Woman’s Day* In a typical week, more people read Woman’s Day than watch Shortland Street or One News Woman’s Day reaches more females under 30 than any other magazine Five times more men read Woman’s Day than fill Eden Park for an All Black test match More than 7.4 million copies of Woman’s Day sold last year Woman’s Day sells on average 14 copies a minute Woman’s Day sells more copies in supermarkets than New Idea and NZ Woman’s Weekly combined

*Sources: Nielsen Media Research NRS (July 03-June 04); Circulation: ABC (2004/1); Aztec Information System. Total supermarket average weekly copy sales for the year ended 25 July 2004

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