Q&A: Women’s Health Publisher Laura Frerer-Schmidt

Rodale’s Women’s Health was part of the club of magazines that enjoyed a September issue bump. PIB paging for the month is up 48 percent compared to September 2012, and overall the magazine is up 32 percent in ad pages so far this year. Yet, the title has been busy expanding internationally with 24 launches since 2007 when it debuted. And the company says Women’s Health was up 98 percent in unique visitors in July, per Coremetrics, versus the same period last year.

Here, we speak with publisher Laura Frerer-Schmidt, who’s been on the job for two years, about the brand’s ad growth, the tablet sales opportunity and how the “wellthy” demographic is gaining prominence in the brand’s positioning strategy.

Folio:Take us back two years to when you started. Where were the areas that you felt Women’s Health needed particular attention?

Laura Frerer-Schmidt: It was an interesting mix because the brand was coming off a couple of down years from an advertising perspective but circulation was very strong [total circ is now 1.6 million]. So there was something special here, and I knew there was a huge trend going on that was driving that circulation and that’s when I found about the term ‘wellthy.’

Wellness is becoming the new cool, it’s becoming the new luxury. An automotive brand that’s running with us this year that ran almost nothing with us last year is Ford, which has been a sponsor of our Run 10 Feed 10 event and they’re very focused on the wellness trend.

Lots of advertisers, whether they’re beauty or fashion or fitness or auto are recognizing this wellthy trend and they are coming towards brands like Women’s Health. And they’re doing that because the consumers are already there.

Folio: So you saw this as an opportunity for the brand to tap into that trend?

Frerer-Schmidt: Yes, absolutely. We’re speaking to the type of person who is looking for that kind of growth and that kind of challenge and that kind of change, which is great for advertisers because they’re always showing you the next big thing. So it’s a great alignment.

Folio:So did you feel that was an opportunity to change the Women’s Health story a little bit?

Frerer-Schmidt: Yes, it was a couple of things. It was about finding out what’s special and unique about our brand and how that resonates in a big way with our advertisers and consumers. And then it was about building the right team to take that messaging out. And that had to be done almost from scratch when I first got here. As you know, Men’s Health and Women’s Health was one team and the Women’s Health brand wasn’t getting the attention it deserved. Rodale recognized that and allowed me to create a Women’s Health team.

Folio:Can you describe how you decided to structure the team?

Frerer-Schmidt: We don’t sell print on its own—we will if someone insists that they buy print alone. So we insist in the beginning that our advertisers include some kind of digital or social element because it’s what makes them come back for more. It’s what got us to 48 percent growth in September.

Folio:Are you finding that you’re doing more of these types of custom programs?

Frerer-Schmidt: Without a doubt, everything is custom so even when someone jumps on board with one of our larger programs like Run 10 Feed 10 or Next Fitness Star, they still want something that’s individualized and customized for them. They want that big program and they want all the elements, but there are many custom things as well.

Folio:How about mobile and tablets? Do you see that as a sales opportunity?

Frerer-Schmidt: The scale’s not there yet, but we’re growing. People are interested in tablet enhancements because you can do cool stuff. I think when the scale catches up, it’s going to be huge.