Lifetime, the magazine, debuts

Lifetime magazine, which is backed by Hearst Corp. and the Walt Disney Co., hits U.S. newsstands today in hopes of winning over viewers of the namesake cable network for women.

Lifetime magazine, which targets women in their 30s, will fight for room in a crowded category that includes other Hearst titles such as Cosmopolitan and Harper’s Bazaar. But the publisher has proved successful in television crossovers.

In 2000 it launched O, the Oprah Magazine, based on Oprah Winfrey’s television show. The title is now one of the publisher’s top franchises with an average paid circulation of more than 2.5 million copies.

Sprinkled with pastel colors and a catchy design, and borrowing some signature feature series from the Lifetime network, the new magazine will run as a bimonthly for a couple of issues, each with a rate base of 500,000 copies. In September it is expected to become a monthly, said Sally Koslow, Lifetime’s editor in chief.

From Reuters