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Pink, for women
reaching for the top
A new magazine on the
business of getting ahead
By Lorraine Sanders
A magazine aiming to target professional women is an intriguing
proposition. That's so in part because there's no existing national title
catering exclusively to C-level female executives.
It's also a bold one.
Pink, which launched two weeks ago, is out to prove that it
can build a readership among those readers, writing to them as
women and as executive decision-makers.
When Working Woman magazine folded in 2001 after 25 years and a substantial circulation of 600,000, the sentiment was that a
workplace magazine for women had become dated. The American
workplace is hardly gender-blind, but in the three decades since
women first flooded the job market it has become a lot less
gender-centric. More and more women see themselves as workers first,
competing on merit. Their reading certainly reflects this, certainly
when it comes to business publications.
Is there a real need, or for that matter demand, for a
magazine that writes to top women executives as women? Called Pink,
yet?
Genevieve Bos, Pink’s publisher and president, makes the
argument that there is. Women are different.
“Women, especially smart, ambitious professional women, are notorious for wanting to better themselves and trying to find ways to further continue to develop their
skills," says Bos.
"Further, there is a hunger women have for wanting to hear stories of other women and to learning how they have achieved
success."
The bi-monthly magazine, which launched out of Atlanta with a rate base of 100,000 and a cover price of $3.95, targets professional women aged 27 to 55. The
magazine will be distributed on newsstands, in office buildings and at gourmet food stores in major
cities. It is edited by CEO and founder Cynthia Good, who earlier launched Atlanta Woman magazine.
Pink’s masthead lists established women business journalists, including Fortune’s Elizabeth Fenner and Lisa Belkin of
The New York Times.
But even with such noted writers, Pink faces the
challenge of breaking through the media clutter to catch and hold
the attention of its target reader. These are women whose time is
already booked, especially if they have families, and they are
already heavy readers of business publications.
“In some ways they can be quite challenging to reach
because they're the busiest of the busy,” explains Lisa Finn, editor of New York-based EPM Communications’ book Marketing to Women.
There's also just not that many target readers in the
upper reaches of American management.
While women have made great strides in the workplace,
they are still a minority at the highest levels. They make up half of the total U.S.
workforce but only 15.7 percent of the corporate officers of Fortune 500 companies, according to a Catalyst Research study released in February.
To succeed, Pink will have to be an aspirational read with appeal for women who
hope someday to become top executives. Indeed, Bos says one purpose
of the magazine is in sharing of experiences. Women executives experience the same
challenges but on different scales, and there's valuable wisdom to
be handed down.
"Sharing tips from top women in business--the elements of negotiating and how to push-- can be
useful for a women in her job as a manager or VP,” says Bos.
The launch issue of Pink features advice on negotiating compensation packages, a story about gender discrimination lawsuits and their effects on companies, suggestions for enhancing office lighting, a piece about the importance of professional mentors, tips for staying healthy, interviews with top female executives and ways to achieve better life/work balance.
Ultimately, Pink's destiny will be determined by the
editorial balance it achieves in writing to women as women versus
managers. It will be a delicate balance.
“There's a growing consensus among marketers who specialize in the women's market that if a marketing effort can be done transparently, it has a better chance of success than one that's tagged as for women, often referred to as pink marketing,” says Finn.
But Bos says Pink has that all figured out. The fact is
that women's lives don't separate out neatly but function as a
continuum.
“All day long women are multi-minding. They are thinking about many things at
once," she says. "For instance, in seconds thoughts can range from the presentation for the next board meeting, to what the kids need to do for camp and planning the next company event, to who should plan for the next shareholder meeting.
"So our editorial mirrors their lives and challenges and shows this intersection of her professional life, her family and her personal time. For most career women, this is all part of a single worldview.”
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June 17, 2005
©
2005
Media Life
- Lorraine
Sanders is a staff writer for
Media Life.
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