The relaunch of the largest customer publication in the UK follows six months of extensive research and development after Hearst was awarded the content account for Asda.
Hearst Made, the publisher’s content partnerships division, will launch Good Living in January to 2.1m customers. Hearst has drawn upon its wealth of consumer insight, digital know-how and strategic expertise to develop a multi-platform proposition that puts the consumer first and creates fun content for the family, says Hearst. The brand will span print, online, mobile, social media and events.
Good Living has made a number of new appointments to its editorial team based at Hearst Magazines UK’s London office. As announced in December, Ally Oliver, a freelance editorial consultant and former Development Editor of Hello! Fashion Monthly and Assistant Editor of Closer, will join Good Living as Editor on January 11. Hannah Barr, former Senior Features Writer at Fabulous, has been made Commissioning Editor; Heledd Williams has joined the editorial team as Chief Sub-Editor from digital content agency AnalogFolk, where she was Production Editor and Kate Matharu, formerly Web Editor of Prima, has been appointed Digital Director.
Anna Saccone Joly, a vlogger with a huge fan-base, will write a monthly column for Good Living. Anna vloggs about daily family life and has two million subscribers to her Meet the Saccone channel on YouTube.
Judith Secombe, Group Publishing Director, Hearst Made, says: “As an established consumer publishing house we are excited to be moving into the branded content arena and creating a new magazine for such a high profile client.
“Good Living has its own look and feel that is linked to the Asda brand but which has a strong tone and design ethos of its own. The tone of voice is fun, relaxed, informed, positive and conversational. By enhancing our editorial team and creating an exciting freemium proposition packed with information, ideas and entertainment, we hope customers will actively seek out the magazine each month.”
Anna Jones, CEO, Hearst Magazines UK, says: “Hearst has a strong track record of delivering engaging content across multiple platforms. Creating Hearst Made was the logical next step to diversify our publishing business and we are delighted to be launching Good Living into Asda stores in January.”
Claire Harrison-Church, VP Marketing & Own Brand, Asda says: “Asda Magazine was already a hugely successful publication, the largest read women’s magazine in the UK, but our desire was to transform it into a multi-platform content hub to reach an even wider audience. Our customers are ahead of the curve when it comes to social media and they now expect us to provide them with daily news and highly engaging, helpful content. Good Living perfectly portrays our fun, family friendly ethos as a brand and gives us the opportunity to talk more widely, and more often, to our customers about the quality of our food, home and clothing ranges, about our events and services in store and about the fantastic colleagues and suppliers we work with.”
