• by Michael Shields , October 29, 2004

There is a photograph on page 43 of the November issue of More magazine that Editor in Chief Peggy Northrop says encapsulates the magazine's target: a 40-something model in a low-cut pink dress, pearls dangling, is turning toward the camera, smiling and blowing a bubble.

"That is what we look like," Northrop said.

Peggy Northrop was hired back in April, and while the magazine had been doing terrific business, the six-year-old grownup women's service title's look needed freshening.

"We knew we were connecting with women in their forties and fifties," she said. "We needed to make the visuals match up with the aspects of this reader."

To do so, More enlisted Robert Priest of Priest media, who had worked on titles such as O at Home. Northrop and her team provided Priest with a list of key words describing the magazine and let him go to work. "The great thing was that he had no preconceived notions about women's magazines," Northrop said.

While the redesign has been gradually taking shape over the past few months, the November issue reflects Priest's and Northrop's new vision. While not dramatically different, More looks more like More.

Rather than having more generic titles of various sections, such as "beauty" or "money," the More brand now colors the look of each page.

For example, the front-of-book section is entitled More Now: Who, What, When, Where, and Wow (sections within are labeled More Now Books, More Now Travel, etc.). A consistent colored pattern now lines the trim of each page.

"We want people to say, that must be More magazine," said Northrop.

More has also continued to refine its editorial product, and includes more provocative feature stories, such as this month's "Gray like Me," in which a blond woman experiences the world in a gray wig.

Men appear for the first time in "Men we Love" (along the lines of Esquire's 'Women we Love.'")

Northrop increased the fashion and beauty content to better recognize these women's individual styles. "These women are confident about fashion," she said. "They don't want to look like their moms and they don't want to look like their teenage daughters."

Northrop also expanded the book's health and fitness coverage. "So many women at age 40 say, 'I'm serious about fitness--I'm grabbing life by the horns,'" she said.

Even the last page of the magazine has been revised as "Next," where a celebrity subject re-imagines his or her life (this month, Bebe Neuwirth poses as a samurai).

Even before all these changes, it is clear that More is benefiting from advertisers' recognition of the individuality and buying power of the baby boomer generation, despite the fact that they are not all 18-49. Ad pages are up 13 percent through September after an amazing 33 percent surge in 2003. And soon the book will enter the prominent category of million-plus rate base books (circulation was up 12.7 percent through June of this year).

Still, there is some progress to be made by marketers engaging an 'older' audience. "People in this age group want to be spoken to in a different way," said Northrop. "Marketers are figuring that out."

As the title grows in prominence, so does the importance of branded More events outside of the magazine's pages.

The November issue announced the results of the fifth annual "More 40+ Model Search," which drew 15,000 entrants this year.

The first annual MoreMarathon, held in March 2004, was also a huge success, drawing a surprising 2,500 runners (entrants had to be a 40+ woman, or with a 40+ woman), and thus ensuring that the event will be repeated next year. "This is really the age when women stop asking 'Why?' and say 'Why not?'"