Hearst to Launch Quick & Simple, a New Weekly Magazine; Largest U.S. Women's Magazine Publisher Makes First Foray into Weekly Market

Business Wire, March 7, 2005

NEW YORK -- Hearst Magazines plans to enter the weekly market later this year with the introduction of Quick & Simple, a new publication targeting women, announces Hearst Magazines President Cathleen P. Black. Quick & Simple's editorial will be overseen by Susan Toepfer, a veteran of magazines and newspapers. Bernadette Haley, former publisher of Reader's Digest and Organic Style magazines, will head up the advertising efforts.

Quick & Simple will cover real women and what's important to them in a positive, upbeat format, including home, family, food, health, nutrition, fitness, fashion and beauty. The premiere issue will hit newsstands this summer.

"With our long history of publishing powerful magazine brands like Good Housekeeping and Redbook, Hearst knows the mainstream women's magazine market backwards and forwards," says Black. "There's room for a new entry in the non-celebrity, weekly women's service category, and we believe that Quick & Simple, with its tips, advice and solutions, will appeal to women across the country."

Toepfer, who will serve as the magazine's editor-in-chief, spent the past two years at G J USA Publishing, where she was editor-in-chief on several development projects. Previously, she spent nearly 15 years at People, rising from senior writer to deputy managing editor of the weekly publication. Prior to that, she held a number of key positions at the New York Daily News.

Haley will be responsible for the weekly's advertising. Most recently, she was consulting publisher for Working Mother and Working Woman magazines. Prior to that, Haley was founding publisher of Organic Style and publisher of Organic Gardening from 2001-2004. Previously, she spent several years at Reader's Digest, overseeing the Reader's Digest Special Interest Magazine Group as vice president and group publisher and, previously, as vice president and publisher of Reader's Digest magazine. This marks a return to Hearst Magazines for Haley, who was associate publisher of Good Housekeeping in 1998.

While Quick & Simple is Hearst's first weekly magazine in the U.S., the company's U.K. subsidiary, The National Magazine Company - in a joint venture with ACP, the Australian publishing company - has two weekly publications called Best and Reveal, the latter which launched last year. Both titles have found great success with readers. Hearst Magazines currently reaches nearly 50% of women in the U.S. with its vast portfolio of monthly women's magazines such as Cosmopolitan; Good Housekeeping; Harper's BAZAAR; O, The Oprah Magazine and Redbook.

Hearst Magazines is a unit of The Hearst Corporation (www.hearst.com), one of the world's largest publishers of monthly magazines, with a total of 18 U.S. titles and 140 international editions. Hearst's magazines are read by more U.S. adult women than any other monthly magazine publisher. The company also publishes 18 magazines in the United Kingdom through its wholly owned subsidiary, The National Magazine Company Limited.