Observer to launch monthly food magazine

The Observer is launching a monthly title called Observer Food Monthly to further bolster the newspaper’s circulation revival over the past 18 months.

The 68-page tabloid magazine will be launched in early summer, and will carry features about eating and drinking.

The launch is being backed by an advertising campaign, created by Ogilvy & Mather. A marketing campaign will then continue to push subsequent issues.

The magazine will be available free with the Observer on the second Sunday of every month. Its arrival follows the success of Observer Sport Monthly, which was launched last May.

Observer Sport has been credited with helping to turn around the Observer’s fortunes. Since it first launched, the paper has increased its weekly sales by an average of 32,532 copies.

A spokeswoman for the Observer says: “There will be in-depth features, covering subjects from gourmet travel to food scares. There will also be interviews, regular columns and celebrity-led items offering readers a view of the world through the filter of food and drink.”

The magazine will be edited by Lucy Cavendish, formerly a features writer for the Sunday Telegraph.

For the six months to January 2001, the Observer’s average circulation was 443,232, an increase of 8.7 per cent on the same period the previous year.