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When Hearst decided to shutter Victoria in 2003, the 16-year-old shelter magazine seemed a likely candidate for later revival. It had a total paid circulation of nearly 1 million and ad pages had actually been on the rise when it was closed to make room for Veranda, a similar shelter title Hearst had acquired the previous year. Most important of all, Victoria left a legacy of extremely loyal fans, women who continued to discuss the magazine on web message boards long after its demise. Now, four years later, Victoria is being relaunched by Hoffman Media, the Birmingham, Ala., publisher of Cooking with Paula Deen and Southern Lady. Victoria arrives on newsstands Oct. 30 as a bimonthly with upscale advertisers, including Laura Ashley, Extasia Jewelry and more than a dozen furniture sellers. The new Victoria will resemble the old in many ways, with a classic design and focus on home topics like gardening, design, collectibles and cooking. But it will also include more of a focus on women entrepreneurs. Phyllis Hoffman, editor in chief of Victoria and founder/president of Hoffman Media, talks to Media Life about the old and new Victoria.
What led to Victoria magazine's demise a few years ago?
It was not the size that Hearst wanted. It was small, about 800,000 circulation. I think that was pretty much it. It just wasn’t as large as a lot of their other titles, some having 3.4 million readers.
Why did you decide to revive Victoria?
Because it had 800,000 subscribers and they were passionate subscribers. Those women never went away. They banded together with blogs, and it was totally amazing. It was very much a missed magazine. They tried to get Hearst to relaunch it.
These people are 47 to 52 year old, a great age, and they’re a viable audience, so we knew it would be a success.
What has changed since the magazine closed four years ago that makes this a better environment for Victoria?
Corporations are celebrating the women of today more. Banks are about the empowerment of women.
It’s okay to be feminine and still be a success. It's the acceptance and encouragement of women who are successful in their careers and yet are still feminine women. Women are saying, “We can still be smart.”
Victoria was an escape for women, an oasis of retreat. It was like a friend coming for a visit when it arrived, and most would forbid anyone from disturbing them as they read it. It was their time.
What will you do differently with the magazine this time around?
We’ll be doing an entrepreneur women feature in every issue instead of just once per year. That was an important part for these women. They liked reading about them, so we’re putting at least one in each issue, and maybe even more than one.
Also, we’re going with a little more emphasis on your own surroundings and creating your personal space and your own image.
What has been the general response of the ad buying community to the magazine's revival?
Really nice.
We were at the furniture market last week, and we had some advance copies to show people. They just loved it. It was really exciting because they were very encouraging for us to do it. A lot of them really missed it because it was an integral part of their business, being featured in the magazine.
What demographic is the magazine targeted at?
Basically 47-year-olds for the base of subscribers. Newsstand readers will be about 10 years younger. The majority of them are professionals and still working in their professions. They have expendable incomes in excess of $50,000.
They collect, they travel, they’re independent. A lot of these women actually travel together. They’re more mobile.
What sort of short- and long-term goals have you set for the magazine, in terms of circulation, ad sales and editorial?
In the short term, we want to get the magazine to half a million subscribers.
We’re spending a lot on newsstand promotion for both short- and long-term marketing.
Long term we’ll have a fully integrated web community that will be an extension of the editorial. It will be like a Victoria library.
What is the magazine's mission?
The mission to provide a magazine that is encouraging to women and affirms them but also is a how-to guide and educates women, bringing them opportunities to learn.
This is a companion magazine. It’s designed to be a reference, and also to be entertainment. So it wears dual hats.
We’ll also have Victoria-branded items for people to buy, and that’s important to some of these women. It will be in the form of books and things like that.
Have you heard from many former readers about the relaunch?
They’re going crazy. Our phone has rung off the wall, and the emails are unbelievable. We had our first Victoria event, and there were 75 women that came to a conference in Dallas.
It was absolutely amazing, their reaction to it. They loved it. They’d grieved the magazine's closing, as I did as a former subscriber.
Victoria creates a private sanctuary to come to, and it’s also a source. Favorite Things is one of the most wonderful categories in the magazine. It tells you about food, recipes, wreaths, things like that, so it becomes an extension of the Victoria community.
In Dallas, we had complete, just total, excitement. It’s their magazine. They really took ownership in it. It was really kind of cool.
