Meredith Serves Up Eat

Meredith Publications announced the launch of a new magazine, Eat, targeting young working professionals--especially mothers--who want to prepare meals for their families on a limited budget, and often with no experience in cooking.

"The tagline is 'easy family food,' and we're targeting families age 20-45 who have young children," according to Lois White, editor of Eat. "We're trying to give busy moms and dads creative, very doable recipes... This magazine is geared for someone who has less experience cooking--someone who may not have been taught by their mother how to cook because their mother worked outside the home."

According to White, Meredith identified this market segment through reader surveys (both print and online) delivered via its other publications targeting women, including Fitness and Family Circle, as well as focus groups. Likewise, Meredith will push awareness of the new magazine through these publications, as well as supermarket promotions. If the magazine succeeds in its test phase, it will become a subscription publication in Fall 2006.

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White said the first issue includes 82 recipes that aim to please parents and children alike: "We have a section called 'we-like/they-like' where you have one recipe that you can modify to suit kids' tastes, but also adults' taste. For example, for the first issue we took a spaghetti sauce and provided two recipes, so you can just divide the sauce into two servings, with one half for adults and one half for kids."

Overall, White said, "we're trying to serve busy cooks who want to make meals for their families so they don't have to go to fast food restaurants where the food might not be so nutritious." This is especially challenging, according to White, because "believe it or not, today's idea of cooking could be opening a box of macaroni and cheese and doctoring it up with some vegetables. People call that cooking."

At the same time, White explained that the magazine has a noticeably different feel than other food magazines targeting gourmets with more disposable income: "They're more for people who have more seasoned palates... people who are looking to satisfy their adventurous palate with something new."

By contrast, White went on: "We've positioned Eat magazine as the magazine for women who want to be involved in preparing what their families eat, but who still need help with planning, organizing, and executing the meals." Summarizing the magazine's sensibility, White said Eat "basically is about June Cleaver values reconciled with the facts of modern life."

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