The Women’s Interest division of Media 24 magazines competes within the fiercest competitive magazine sector in the country. ABC January-March 2013 highlights for this division paint a picture of some gleaming individual success stories and personal bragging rights.

- This division produces the number one selling female glossy brand - Sarie.
- The incredible pioneering success of Kuier continues to outperform any expectations, slashing records, gaining readers and increasing copy sales by 47.9% to a massive 95 846 copies sold every two weeks.
- The heritage brand of Fairlady has bucked the declining trend of its competitors and through the strength and determination of this brand, has increased its circulation year-on-year by 15,24% to 59 121.
- Ideas/Idees has continued to be a much under estimated heavyweight contender in the female magazine high circulating titles, year-on-year, this magazine brand has grown off an already enviable large base by 4.25% to a very robust 95 846 copies-no advertiser cannot be advertising in this magazine.

The Women’s Division caters to a wide range of female orientated interests from home decorating and cooking to those fashionistas and moms. The parenting titles have remained stable, with Baba & Kleuter and Your Pregnancy posting comparable year-on-year on figures, while Your Baby has changed frequency. The fact that these titles have remained constant in their circulation delivery is testament to the authority of power that these brands have with the highly engaged emotional-charged, purse-string guided parenting audience in South Africa. This stability proves that parents, and parents-to-be still want to get this information through a printed magazine format, which compliments the myriad of other available parenting media content.

Meanwhile Grazia just celebrated their first birthday with a bumper-square-bound-anniversary issue, packed with on-brand ‘fast fashion’ and local and international celebrity news. The editor, Danielle Weakley, commented: “Brave, bold, innovative – they were the words used to describe Grazia when we first launched, and they’re just as relevant today. The comment we hear again and again from our readers is that they’re ‘addicted’ – addicted to our agenda-setting fashion, addicted to our thought provoking features, and addicted to the unique mix of our 10 Hot section, which switches effortlessly from the latest A-list drama to campaigning world news to real-life issues at the heart of every Grazia girl’s life. Grazia girls are thinkers, leaders, doers, dreamers ... and Olympic shoppers. And we love the challenge of keeping them hooked.”

Like any popular fashionista, birthday presents continued to flow in, with a belated birthday present from the ABC of a total circulation of 23 686. Grazia’s circulation performance as a totally new concept within the South African market – a weekly fashion and news magazine – is rivalling many of the long-time-established monthly fashion titles, with an effective, cumulative monthly circulation figure of 94 744.

The Grazia brand has shown great success in the digital realm with a strong Facebook, Twitter and Instagram following. Graziadaily also reinvented itself in May to offer advertising partners more opportunities within the site.

Sarie is still in the enviable number one spot as the glossy magazine of choice for the Afrikaans speaking woman in the Women’s General interest category. This power house brand headed up by Michélle van Breda continues to reach more brand fans through multiple connections each and every day.

Sarie Kos, Sarie’s first brand extension which was launched in 2007, has garnered a solid following of its own. Other Sarie brand extensions such as Sarie Bruid and Sarie Woon have become staple annuals, while new brand extensions such as Sarie Kreatief and the most recent Sarie Sjokolade creates excitement for the brand fans. Sarie’s website, www.sarie.com is the women’s magazine website with the highest traffic in South Africa.

Kuier, the magazine aimed predominantly at Coloured, Afrikaans-speaking women, strives to give readers practical and realistic advice on everyday things like food and recipes, finance, careers, relationships, parenting and health. The success of Kuier proves that relevant editorial aimed at a specific market, produces excellent results that keep on growing. “We are very humbled by the support we continue to receive. Let’s face it – the consumer has so many titles to choose from and with all the big news stories breaking every week, it’s really a huge vote of confidence in what Kuier stands for that our readers have stuck with us. We believe in making a difference and our stellar performance year-on-year is proof that the little guy (or girl) can win.” commented editor, Kay Karriem.

Meanwhile, Tuis/Home breaks the 85 000 circulation mark delivering 654 copies above this.

For more information or to advertise, email business manager, Marilize Hay at Marilize.Hay@media24.com or phone 011 217 3072.