The rise in interest about clean eating has played into Universal Magazines’ food and health title WellBeing’s advantage. The editor of the bimonthly title Danielle Kirk told Mediaweek: “WellBeing has been around since 1984. That is almost 32 years.
“The readership was quite narrow and always on the fringes. We still cover everything WellBeing used to. In the past five or six years, the interest in what we cover has bloomed.
“We are becoming more mainstream than we were. All this talk about clean eating and the idea of food as medicine is up our alley.”
Danielle Kirk
In response to the growing interest in food and healthy eating, Universal Magazines launched a spinoff title to WellBeing called Eat Well early last year. Eat Well is edited by the editor-in-chief of WellBeing, Terry Robson, who is based in Kiama, NSW. Eat Well complements the content published in WellBeing well as it reaches out to a similar segment of magazine readers in Australia, Kirk asserted.
WellBeing’s target market is women aged 25-65, who largely work in white-collar jobs. In a crowded market of women’s health titles in Australia, WellBeing’s target audience crosses over with that of Pacific Magazines’ Women’s Health and Prevention, NewsLifeMedia’s Super Food Ideas and the Taste.com.au magazine and McHugh Media’s MiNDFOOD.
“In terms of where we sit, we are not as big as those other titles,” Kirk admitted.
“We look at holistic health and sustainable diets. Everything in the magazine is supported by current research. We take an thorough view on things rather than quick fixes or a one-dimensional view on health.”
One of the biggest changes for WellBeing on the horizon is its new website, which will launch in August 2016.
“You would’ve noticed that our site is outdated. It doesn’t reflect the current design of the magazine,” Kirk said. “The new website will be crisp, clean and easy to navigate. It will be very user-friendly.”
Kirk predicted that the new look of WellBeing online will help grow its unique browsers and will also facilitate the cross-promotion of the brand’s two key properties.
With the new website, Kirk is keen to produce more video content. However, she said there were obvious limitations to producing video content.
“We have a small budget and a small team so it’s not something we are in a position to do a lot of,” she confessed.
Having said that, Kirk has taken the first steps towards making her ambitions become a reality. The team at WellBeing and the editor-in-chief Terry Robson have produced a number of videos featuring health and nutrition experts. They will be published after the relaunch of its site.
Magazines in Australia have entered the live events space to generate more revenue for their businesses. WellBeing is yet to enter this space. Kirk said it is something that they are not in position to do at the moment, but is something that they plan to venture into in the near future.
When it comes to sales, Kirk has implemented strict guidelines. The advertising clients should reflect the values of WellBeing, which at the heart of it all are about nature and being natural.
“For example, if products contain sodium lauryl sulphate or ingredients that are known to cause harm, we are really firm about refusing to carry those ads,” Kirk explained.
“We are conscious of our brand and realise that a lot of our value with advertisers rests in the brand strength.”