Meredith Launches Print Edition of HelloGiggles

Select subscribers to People will receive an additional title in their mailboxes today: the debut issue of HelloGiggles the magazine—a print counterpart to the millennial-focused lifestyle brand co-founded by Zooey Deschanel and acquired by Time Inc. in 2015.

Meredith Corp., which says the publication is slated to come out twice a year, distributed an initial run of 500,000 copies to People subscribers aged 18 to 39. Like its online content mix, the magazine will be geared toward millennial women with a focus on beauty, fashion, and pop culture.

“The genesis of HelloGiggles‘ print edition came from the data that 60 percent of our Instagram followers said they would read a print issue of their beloved brand, so we responded,” said People publisher Cece Ryan, noting that the inaugural issue’s advertisers—Dove, L’Oréal, and Maybelline, to name a few—appear eager to get in front of HelloGiggles‘ audience regardless of the platform.

It’s hardly the first time Meredith Corp. has eyed a brand with an existing audience and extended it into print. Though it’s too soon to judge its most recent foray, Lisa Lillien’s Hungry Girl, returns on previous attempts suggest the strategy is working.

Allrecipes, which began as a website, similarly debuted in print with 500,000 copies in 2013, and now boasts a rate base of 1.4 million. More recently, 2016 launch The Magnolia Journal, based on Chip and Joanna Gaines of HGTV fame, began with a newsstand run of 400,000 copies and has since doubled its rate base to 800,000—about 85 percent of which are paid print subscriptions, according to data from the Alliance for Audited Media.
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