More

» see more.com as it lived, on the wayback machine

~ the last words ~

meredith's magazine for women over forty was a demographic thesis in print form. i was 14 when it launched in september 1998 and 32 when it shut in april 2016. neither of those made me the intended reader. more sat inside a category that never had a turkish parallel, an american monthly aimed at a specific decade of women's-service reading with celebrity covers stacked on top of a rate-base guarantee sold on demographic precision.

more launched with its september 1998 debut issue after meredith spent 1997 developing the concept. peggy northrop was the launch editor. the pitch was clean: fashion magazines skewed to women in their twenties. women's-service monthlies skewed to housework and family. no title carried style-and-substance coverage aimed specifically at women over forty. more was that title.

lesley jane seymour took the editor chair in 2008 after peggy northrop's launch run. by then the magazine had held a print rate base around 1.3 million with reported readership near 1.8 million. celebrity covers ran with actresses in their forties and fifties. meryl streep and jane fonda appeared multiple times each. advertising age named more magazine of the year in 2006.

more's ending was quick. meredith announced on 8 february 2016 that more would cease publication with the april '16 issue. the reason cited was the shifting media landscape for women over forty, essentially the same digital reallocation that was taking the whole women's-service monthly category. more.com was folded into meredith's central sites shortly after. the canadian edition, launched separately in 2007, had already ended in 2012.

~ the record ~

~ what it was betting on ~

more's demographic thesis was that us women over forty were an underserved magazine audience worth an entire monthly. the fashion-magazine market had glamour and vogue on the younger end. the women's-service monthlies (ladies' home journal, redbook, good housekeeping) sat on the family-and-home center. more targeted the ten-year slice between forty and fifty who wanted style coverage without the twenty-something fashion voice of glamour. that was the entire bet.

the bet worked for the first fifteen years. peak monthly readership reached around 1.8 million on a 1.3 million rate base by the mid-2000s. advertising age's 2006 magazine of the year award validated the demographic pitch. through the late 2000s more established itself as the flagship us print title for its target reader.

~ the peak years ~

more ran a canadian edition from 2007 to 2012 in parallel with the us title. the us title held its rate base through lesley jane seymour's editor tenure from 2008. celebrity covers targeted actresses in the same demographic more was aimed at. features carried a mix of style, health, career and money coverage tuned for the reader in her forties or fifties.

by 2014 the print ad category was under real pressure. digital lifestyle publishing at meredith's own portfolio was pulling budget that had previously gone into more's print rate base. the same pattern that was taking every other women's-service monthly at meredith and hearst was starting to take more.

~ what really happened ~

meredith announced the closure on 8 february 2016. the april issue was declared the final print run. staff at more got reassignment offers to other meredith titles where slots existed. the digital property more.com was folded into meredith's central content operation with no separate editorial team. lesley jane seymour left the company and later launched covey club as a subscription community for the same demographic more had targeted.

more's ending was less publicized than the lucky and details closures inside condé nast's own wind-down the same year. more had held a solid circulation number to the last month and did not have a specific editorial crisis. the meredith decision was portfolio math. the ad revenue per copy did not justify a separate monthly against the digital properties the company was already running for the same reader.

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