New look, new focus for Redbook

At a time when so much information is available online, including much of the stuff that used to fill women’s service magazines like recipes and cleaning tips, such titles are looking for new identities.

Already Good Housekeeping and Ladies’ Home Journal have undergone major changes in the past year, freshening their look, asking readers for greater contributions, and getting rid of dated features.

Now Redbook has joined that movement.

The April issue introduces a reimagined magazine that’s meant to act as readers’ personal shopper.

Here’s how the new mission is described in a press release: “[T]o deliver fun, fabulous, affordable fashion, beauty and home ideas for the style-conscious, savvy reader. We’re her personal shopper and stylist, inspired by a revolution in retail that makes high design available at accessible price points.”

The cover will still include a celebrity, but she’ll be pictured alongside items that readers can “window shop,” like a new bag and makeup. Inside pages will feature discounts exclusive to Redbook readers.

The magazine seems to have been inspired partly by fashion blogs, and indeed it features some new technology: Readers can snap pictures of a page to be transported to a site that allows them to buy a product with one click.

Redbook’s newsstand sales fell 3.9 percent during the six-month period ended in December, though the title held up better than many of its fellow women’s service magazines, like LHJ and Good Housekeeping, both down more than 15 percent, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

Redbook’s ad pages took a tumble last year, down 19.4 percent, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, third-most in the category.

Tags: features, Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, LHJ, magazine redesigns, magazines, publishers information bureau, redbook, redbook makeover, redbook redesign, style, time, women's magazines