Hachette seeks agency for magazine launch

Hachette Filipacchi is understood to be seeking an advertising agency for the launch of a new women’s magazine. The company is known to have registered Inside TV and Being as potential titles over the past year.

It is also recruiting journalists for the title, which it says will cover fashion, beauty, health, food and interiors. It is not known which advertising agencies the publisher has spoken to, or whether there is a shortlist.

The women’s market is becoming increasingly competitive, with a raft of launches due over the next few months and a number of existing titles stepping up their marketing support. Rival publisher EMAP is to launch its weekly glossy, Grazia, next month and Condé Nast’s Easy Living is due in April. IPC recently launched a women’s weekly called Pick Me Up and Northern & Shell will launch a monthly, Happy, in April. The National Magazine Company (NatMags) launched Reveal last year.

Cosmopolitan, which is also owned by NatMags, is embarking on a major marketing push after its position as the top-selling women’s magazine in the UK was snatched by its handbag-sized rival, Glamour.