Opinion
Media Choice: Source magazine
01.11.2006Sarah Howard, Press Manager Source is a new magazine from Greenbee – the direct services company from John Lewis partnership. The name comes from the hope that Greenbee will be “a source of information” where people can go to get the best deals for insurance, finance, travel, entertainment and of course JL and Ocado online shopping. When looking at this magazine the name also suggests that the editorial team has sourced the best bits from lots of mags that appeal to their AB, predominately female target.
They pulled no punches in putting Madonna on the front cover of their first issue. With the current media frenzy surrounding her recent family antics this can do Source no harm. However, the articles on political correctness and how to make your home greener take it into a slightly different realm for the usual Customer magazine. Indeed the aspiration for this kind of article from the editor is that this will generate “dinner party conversation”. Hopefully for the magazine, those discussing such topics will also reveal their ‘source’ of such info.
The food pages wouldn’t look out of place in Olive or Delicious (and of course Waitrose Illustrated), fashion, beauty, homes and travel sections would sit fairly comfortably in the likes of Eve, She and Red.
Towards the back half the hard sell kicks in particularly for the financial services. Could this turn off readers and advertisers? Potentially.
For a customer magazine they have researched their target audience well and this should appeal to many of the JL and Waitrose ‘yummy mummies’ out there but it is unlikely to set the advertising world alight - unless you are a cooker or TV brand of which 4 out of the first 8 advertisers are.
