When Jane Bruton took over as editor-in-chief of Good Housekeeping last September, she had two not insignificant priorities: instilling a new creative vision and making the 103-year-old title digital-first. And in her first ten months, she’s wasted no time doing both and more.
“The approach is evolution not revolution,” she explains.
“When I arrived here, the brand was already in great shape — ABC headline growth across the brand in 2024 was up 2% year on year, paid subscriptions up 3%, and paid digital subscriptions up 53%.
“But in an era of change — and with that change accelerating ever more quickly — my primary role is ensuring Good Housekeeping is around for at least another 100 years.”
Achieving this is all about ensuring — and, as important — communicating the brand’s relevance. And that, in turn, comes from two of Good Housekeeping’s core and longstanding pillars: usefulness, through good advice that builds trust, and community.
Established in the US back in 1885, Good Housekeeping launched in the UK in 1922 — an inter-war period of significant social upheaval, during which many prominent figures (Millicent Fawcett, Virginia Woolf, and more) used the magazine’s pages to push for change.
Back then, this made Good Housekeeping quite radical — a heritage especially fitting for today.
“When I joined, some people asked me if maybe I’d change the name, but I said no,” says Bruton, whose career highlights include ten years as launch editor of Grazia, the UK’s first glossy fashion weekly, and more recently, seven years as deputy editor of The Daily Telegraph.
“When you think about it, ‘housekeeping’ is about everything — from good finance to good relationships to good hair. It’s not old-fashioned. And nor is Good Housekeeping an old-fashioned place to be.”
Across the ages
To prove her point, she points to ‘Gentelligence’ — a research project started shortly before her arrival which has gathered momentum since.
Gentelligence is about understanding and highlighting the common beliefs and ambitions shared by the women across different generations who make up Good Housekeeping magazine’s audience.
It began with a survey of 3,000 women spanning the ages of 18 to 80 and is being expanded through deep dives and follow-up studies.
“We’ve built on it and extended it and how we’re using it isn’t about one-off research or simply using it for a special report here or there, it’s about the insights it throws up informing everything we do,” Bruton explains.
Initial findings have provided a solid platform for positioning Good Housekeeping as uniquely ‘inter-generational’, for example — something Bruton is now building on to build and deepen the brand’s appeal.
With 45 to 64-year-olds accounting for 36% of Good Housekeeping’s readership, 25 to 44-year-olds 30%, 65s and over 27%, and under-24s 7%, the brand’s audience has a surprisingly wide demographic spread.
And Gentelligence unpacks this further.
From Baby Boomers to Gen Z-ers, today’s women exhibit more shared values than previously assumed — particularly regarding financial stability, personal relationships, body image, and societal issues.
Over 90% of respondents in the research agreed that “there’s much we can learn from other generations, but we don’t often take the time to listen to them” and 82% agree that “across the generations there is more that unites us than sets us apart.”
Bruton’s plan is to build on the appetite for change and the forward-thinking mindset Gentelligence reveals. She’s also keen to distance Good Housekeeping from the tendency to pigeon-hole women that is so common in much of the rest of the media.
And central to both is meeting readers where they are with the most relevant content.
One of Bruton’s early innovations was introducing a daily 10am conference to create a newsroom feel that encouraged team-wide discussion to decide which subjects should be covered, who they should be aimed at and via which platform — print, digital, social, You Tube, newsletters, live events, and so on.
This has sharpened editorial focus and strengthened the quality of story ideas across all Good Housekeeping platforms, she says. It has also paved the way for ideas to be tested more quickly to see what works best and encouraged more risk-taking.
With UK monthly pageviews for the period March to May 2025 at least doubled year-on-year, peaking at 4.13m in April, this appears to be paying off.
Spring clean
Another early focus was a re-design of the print magazine which, along with new columnists, directors and editors, went live with the April 2025 issue — the first edition Bruton fully edited.
“It was important to show visually that Good Housekeeping is something its readers can and should feel proud to read rather than a well-loved secret,” Bruton says. “Rather than re-design, I’d call it a spring clean.”
The refresh included minor tweaks to the logo, a new font, and an upgrade of the quality of photographs — and calibre of photographers — used.
It also involved making testing and reviews more prominent by hero-ing the work of the brand’s longstanding expert and independent testing and reviewing division, Good Housekeeping Institute (GHI), up front.
In a world of false claims, GHI is especially powerful as a USP, Bruton points out. It’s also an essential and tangible demonstration of one of the Good Housekeeping brand’s strengths: usefulness.
New sections were introduced, too, including ‘Housewise’, where editors gather best products, trends, and tips for the month. New columnists also arrived, including Matthew d’Ancona, Anniki Sommerville, Lauren Laverne, and Shane Watson.
Meanwhile, fashion and food sections got a new look and, also, a fresh ethos rooted in tangible benefits beyond simply how-to-look good or here’s-another-nice-recipe. One upcoming style slot, for example, explores how clothing impacts wellbeing.
As if all this wasn’t enough, a Desert Island-inspired Good Housekeeping podcast was also launched, called ‘My Life in a Biscuit Tin’.
Additionally, GHI’s longstanding Tried & Tested accreditation scheme was extended with the brand collaborating with publishing industry experts and insiders to launch a new publishing endorsement programme, called GH Good Books.
Like the shift to a newsroom mindset, the new look and feel is going down well judging by the uptick since April in newsstand sales; subscriptions; sign-ups to Good Housekeeping VIP — a membership proposition with rewards including exclusive content, access, treats and experiences; ecommerce revenue; and Apple News engagement.
“We are listening, and we are evolving,” says Burton. “And we are confident in the vision and that it’s working.”
And next in her sights? More video, YouTube, TikTok? All these and more, is her answer — including, she reveals, a Good Housekeeping campaign.
“It may sound clichéd, but our readers want to make the world a better place. They are open to change, and they also want to instigate it. When something needs to be done, they want to get involved,” Bruton explains.
“I did the gender pay gap campaign back when I was on Grazia, and it’s infuriating that while we changed the law, it’s not really changed the dials. I’m now weighing up a number of campaign ideas and the question is which will be Good Housekeeping’s first.
“It’s about finding the right thing, which must resonate with our readers. Everybody, I think, wants to be part of something. That’s human nature. It makes them feel more part of your tribe, which is all about the idea of community — one of magazine publishing’s strengths.”
The power of the community
And community-building is something magazine brands are especially good at.
At a recent presentation from Enders Analysis, she says the answer to the question of which medium is best to be working in at present — newspapers, broadcasting, or magazines — the answer was unequivocal: magazines.
“That’s because we understand community. Whatever the platform, we understand it, create it, are good at it,” Bruton explains.
“And that’s the big opportunity for magazine publishers moving forward: building and mobilising tribes by cutting through with the right content at the right time, understanding and engaging people.”
The role of editor now is as it has always been, she continues: to spot a gap in the market, and to spot or create a community and then cement it.
“The competition for attention may be massive now, put the potential for a magazine to impact people, whether that’s through being supportive, useful, or by influencing them to buy something, is huge,” she believes.
“Building community is a big part of my job. That’s why when I look at the future for publishing, given the change in how people consume content and the change still to come, I think if you evolve with your readers, there is still a lot of potential.”
When it comes to how publishers can best do this, however, there are no easy answers.
“In today’s world, there are no rules anymore,” Bruton admits.
“You’ve just got to know what you are and who your readership is — know what you’re about and be confident in that. Don’t compromise. Don’t have a magazine or brand run by committee.
“Do have the right team, tools, product development, creative, format. And move quickly, keeping an eye out for the people with the potential to innovate and move the dial — and a commitment to attracting them to come and work with you.
“If you can do all that, then you can flex, which we all have to do because in the world we now live in, everything is changing.”
It’s a big challenge, without a doubt.
“But above all,” she adds with a smile, “it’s exciting.”
This article was first published in InPublishing magazine. If you would like to be added to the free mailing list to receive the magazine, please register here.
