Woman’s Life is a Yorkshire-based independently owned magazine that was created with funding from the millennium commission. This year it is celebrating a decade since its first publication at the shelves. The magazine was first established by Dawn Marie French, who is the editor of the magazine, in 2001. This was after she conducted extensive research into what people in the Yorkshire region wanted to read. She also experimented with different formats and eventually settled on publishing in the A5 size.
The magazine currently boasts over 15,000 subscribers and it is published three times a year. The cost of subscriptions the magazine is £10 in the UK as it is slightly more expensive if you are based in the EU. For those who want to subscribe to the magazine and are based in the rest of the world the charge is £40 a year
Despite this additional cost for those who are based outside the UK, it is estimated that around 30% of the readers in the magazine based abroad. Most of them are people from Yorkshire who have moved abroad but want to remain in touch with news from their original local area.
Initially the magazine focused on news and issues but since then it has moved into writing travel features as well as lifestyle writing. They have said that this is due to changing consumer demand. When the magazine was first launched it was intended that it be a middle ground between celebrity and fashion news as at the time there was no real magazine targeting this niche in the market.
Ms French has commented, “Initially when we started the magazine it was a bit of a risk but I’m very glad to see that it is paid off for us, we are currently enjoying a great subscriber base and it looks like this is going to continue to expand for many years to come.” The magazine also has celebrity interviews, restaurant recommendations, and information and news about fashions on the high street.
