Marie Claire joins the crowd - French magazine debuts in the US market - Brief Article

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 15, 1994 by Lambeth Hochwald

The much anticipated American edition of the French women's magazine Marie Claire hit newsstands in August, carrying 131 pages of ads. But some are wondering just where the new title - with a distribution of 700,000 and a target age of 25 to 44 - will fit in.

Marie Claire, a joint venture between Hearst Magazines and overseas partner Marie Claire Album, was thought to be positioning itself as a bridge book for readers older than the Cosmopolitan girl, but younger than the Harper's Bazaar woman. Instead, the September/October premiere - featuring such standard cover fare as "Adultery do's and don'ts," and "Makeup miracles & hair overhauls" - seems to be raising new questions about the magazine's ability to create a distinct persona of its own.

Paula Brooks, executive vice president/director of media services at Margeotes Fertitta Donaher & Weiss in New York City, says Marie Claire's point of view is younger than she expected - an opinion shared by others: "I thought it would be like Harper's Bazaar or Mirabella. It's more like Mademoiselle or Glamour."

The launch was not without complications. Marie Claire's original editor, Catherine Ettlinger, was replaced in February by Bonnie Fuller, who had been editor in chief at Gruner Jahr's YM. And Betsy Carter, a major contributing editor, left the project in july to become editor of K-III's New Woman.

Fuller downplays the challenge of trying to reach such a wide audience of women. "If you look at the demographics, a great majority are working either full or part time," she says. "Their lifestyles are not so different. They have lots in common because 25-year-olds today are older and more experienced, just as 44-year-olds are younger and more active than ever before."