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First makes a fourth attempt at success

Posted in Media, Nikki Preston, Latest reporters' blogs September 11th, 2007 by Nikki Preston

Well it truly is a First – after investing literally tens of millions in its weekly magazine (shock horror) Emap may have finally got the formula for First right.

The result of the fourth and latest overhaul of First is so far from its original concept (pictured)that you almost wonder why they have carried on the name…unless you remembered that Emap doesn’t like failure and rather than a kill a title off it will nip and tuck it until it gets it right, remember Heat?

The re-launch has been also dubbed by many key industry figures as Emap’s last ditch attempt to make First a success – so what has the publisher done – completely buried the original concept of having a news and current affairs focus.

The only thing that remains the same about First compared with the launch copy over a year ago is its target audience – woman aged 35 and over.

However, I think Emap may actually be on to something. The end result for First is a an older and larger sized version of Grazia, but with an older audience and wider range of content covering lifestyle, real life stories, fashion, food and celebrity. In fact it seems to have a bit of everything and with Dannii Minogue, the sister of pop icon Kylie, on the cover it cements its focus on targeting the slightly more mature women.

The toughest challenge for Emap will be shaking off the old First image and securing an ABC that leaves its mediocre 106,961 a distant memory and instead sits it closer to Grazia’s 220,125.

A plumped up ABC would also do the magazine wonders as I imagine advertisers have lost a lot of faith in Emap’s ability to improve the magazine and as a result have decided to invest their money elsewhere. This week’s edition also confirms this as a mere six beauty brands and two high street retailers make up the total sum of its advertisers.

To read the news story related to this blog, go to mad.co.uk