• by Michael Shields , January 6, 2005

TV Guide just made its own supermarket shelf competition that much fiercer.

The magazine's publisher, TV Guide Publishing Group, a division of Gemstar-TV Guide International, is launching a weekly TV celebrity magazine targeted to younger women.

Inside TV, which will launch this spring, appears to be playing in the same space as the U.S. Weekly's and In Touch's of the world rather than its subscription-driven parent. In fact, Steve LeGrice, who helped launch In Touch Weekly in 2002, will serve as Inside TV's editor in chief.

LeGrice will report to TV Guide Editor in Chief Ian Birch, who was hired in September after an extensive career as an editor and publisher in the United Kingdom, including time spent as editorial director at two celebrity- and entertainment-focused weekly magazines: heat and its sister title Closer.

According to LeGrice, Inside TV will offer "a unique and quite different way to present what's on TV."

Rather than pages of listings displaying what's on a given night, Inside TV will be star-focused, targeted to an 18- to 30-something audience, covering how "TV impacts their lives, from fashion and style that interests them."

"People come to watch TV in a much different way than they did 20 years ago," he added. "They have a relationship with shows they really like that--one that influences what they wear and what they drink." (Think Cosmopolitans on Sex and the City).

Given that dynamic, Inside TV plans to cover a narrower slice of the TV landscape, focusing on shows and stars that appeal to this group. "Morley Safer's appeal to this demographic is not that great," quipped LeGrice.

Unlike some of the more popular celebrity weeklies, LeGrice says that Inside TV will not be as gossip-driven, maintaining a "positive and upbeat tone."

Specifics on the launch are few at this point, as Inside TV has not announced a first issue date, a cover price, or a rate base.