Where Women Create

Jo Packham started her publishing career at her kitchen table 30 years ago, developing her idea for cross-stitch publications. In January she joined forces with Kellene Giloff and Jenny Doh of Stampington & Company's Somerset Studio to develop a magazine about the studios and galleries of women who create. The first issue includes 11 women who have built businesses and communities around them.

"So you now hold in your hands one of my oldest, most treasured dreams and if you are a woman who creates, then this is your magazine; a thousand stories told from the hearts and hands of as many women. No matter what you make or what medium you use, this is your safe haven, this is a gallery to showcase your wares, a classroom to learn something new, a source of motivation, reassurance, and inspiration."

Whew! All I want is a few more bookshelves. I don't even have draperies, and my walls are beige with my husband's and my paintings. I can't even imagine working in these types of studios, but there ya go! Something for everyone!

Where Women Create; inspiring work spaces of extraordinary women
Winter 2008, Volume 1, number 1, Premier Issue
Status: Newstand
ISSN NA
Subject: creativity, work spaces, studios, women
Publication schedule: quarterly
Published by: Stampington & Company
Address: 22992 Mill Creek, Suite B
Laguna Hills CA 92653
949-380-7318
http://www.wherewomencreate.com
http://stampington.com
$14.99 single; subscription: 4 issues $59.99
Creator, President & Editor in Chief: Jo Packham
Publisher and President, Stampington & Co.: Kellene Giloff
Printer: Quebecor World, Midland, MI

44 Hallmark Magazine

The premiere issue of Hallmark Magazine, September/October 2006, Vol. 1, no.1, was given to me by my friend Bev, who loves to surprise people with little personal gifts, knowing I collect premiere issues. It will have strong ties to its products and expects to have 550,000 out there for the next issue via newstands, subscriptions, and Gold Crown stores. Hallmark Cards is based in Kansas City, but the publishing will be out of New York. There are many delightful articles in this beautifully designed magazine, but when I got to the end there was an excerpt from Alice McDermott's new novel, After This, with soft watercolor illustrations. Such a pleasure to see fiction in a woman's magazine.

It is divided into secions: Inspire; Renew; Nest; Connect; and Nourish, each with a beautiful graphic and quote. Too early (or late): "If you catch a falling leaf on the first day of autumn (September 23), you won't catch a cold all winter." I already have a bad cold. The obligatory beauty secrets, but a slightly different outdoorsy article on pretty kayaks, a Martha-type article on decorating with leaves and twigs for fall. One of the most interesting articles was on collecting post cards of your growing up area as a way to preserve memories. Don't think I've seen that one outside of a genealogy magazine. A number of the writers featured in this issue aren't the usual free-lancers, but authors of books either recently published or about to be. It's a strong platform for women writers.

The Editor-in-Chief, Lisa Benenson, writes on p.11: "For almost a century, we at Hallmark have been committed to helping people appreciate life's best moments. That's why, in the months and years to come, I hope you'll pick up Hallmark Magazine and find resouces for making the most of all the joyful chaos in your own life--stories that inspire you, and ideas that you want to make your own."

Hallmark Magazine
Premiere Issue, Volume 1, number 1, September/October 2006
ISSN: na
Publication schedule: 6 times a year with occasional special issues
Subject: Life style, Hallmark products, women
Hallmark Publishing
1412 Broadway, Suite 2010
New York, NY 10018
$3.95; intro rate 10 issues @ $1.99 ea.; $36.50 a year outside USA
www.halmarkmagazine.com
Editor-in-Chief: Lisa Benenson
Publisher: Carol Campbell Boggs
Hallmark Publishing President: Nancy O. Small
Hallmark Cards, Inc. President & CEO: Don Hall

37 Red; for the best things in life

Diane Lane on the cover of Red

Red is a new lifestyle magazine for women by Hachette Filipacchi Media which appeared on news stands in April 2005 with a press run of 300,000. This is not to be confused with another spring newcomer, "Red" a new lifestyle publication that will strive to "engage Dallas' social professionals to continue their quest for an abundant and enriching lifestyle."

This U.S. premiere issue is a "redesigned British import for modern women that really speaks their language." I must be bilingual, because I didn't have any problem figuring out the formula of the usual important issues for women--shopping, fashion, beauty/health, decorating, food, and travel. And the interview with the movie hunk Michael Vartan (Monster-in-law) reveals how deep this magazine goes. His most recently read book is DaVinci Code and he watches Animal Planet on TV. In his latest movie he plays a clueless surgeon. What a stretch!

The cover girl, Diane Lane, is 40. Don't recognize her? Me either, but she is Barbra Streisand's step daughter-in-law having recently married Josh Brolin, the son of Barbra's husband. I did a survey at the coffee shop and everyone under 25 knew who she was. The over 50 crowd didn't--we apparently don't see enough movies.

The ads contain a lot of red, stunning, grown-up clothes and jewelry. This is not your daughter's magazine, unless your daughter is the age of mine (37). Even with all the red color, I'm not sure how this magazine will distinguish itself from the other lifestyle choices on the news stand, like Elle. On the masthead, this magazine has an unusual number of women in charge of various departments, or else it is title inflation.

Editor Alexandra S. Postman writes in the editor's letter: "We are single career women and stay-at-home moms, city dwellers and suburbanites. . . we are Diane Lane. . .we are the multiple choice generation. . . we are growing up without feeling old."

Red; for the best things in life
Premiere Issue, May 2005
ISSN: n.a.
Subject: Lifestyle, women
Publication schedule: bimonthly?
Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. Inc.
16 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
http://www.hfmus.com
$3.99; $12.00 for 10 issues
Editor: Alexanra S. Postman
Art Director: Guillaume Bruneau
Chairman: Gerald de Roquemaurel
President & CEO: Jack Kilger

18 Working Woman Weekends

1987. Seems like yesterday. The children were both graduated and gone. I was having empty-nest syndrome big time. I thought I would die. I don't think I gave a hoot about having my week-ends free, because I was just thrilled to have a new job that I loved as Head of the Veterinary Medicine Library at Ohio State. Other women obviously need some help with their week-ends, and thus this magazine. John Stoltenberg, the editor, wrote in the Winter 1987 Premier Issue (don't you love a guy telling us about how to live our week-ends?):

A new weekends life-style is emerging in this country--and it promises to enrich the lives of many people who have made serious commitments to their careers. . . Weekends was conceived in part because effective R & R and getaways worthy of the name call for just as much commitment and purposefulness as a successful business deal. Wonderful weekends don't just happen; smart career people decide to make them happen. . . [Husbands and wives] joint commitment to their careers has forged a new sense of partnership--a new collegiality--that has completely transformed their expectations of weekends.

Is it only me? Or does this guy sound just a bit condescending, like women couldn't battle a week-end respite without some help? So I googled John. Turns out he is a white male, self-described as a gay feminist and has written two books on the topic, Refusing To Be A Man and The End Of Manhood. He has an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary, so he also has written, not unfavorably, on Promise Keepers, a Christian men's group.

Weekends offers snippets on short trips, vehicles, outings, relationships with family members, a celebrity bio (Diane Sawyer), winter holiday get-a-ways, romantic places, entertaining and recipes, and some health tips. There is nothing here that wasn't covered in the supermarket magazines Family Circle and Woman's Day of 17 years ago.

According to Ulrich's, Weekends ceased after a brief life, as a publication of Hal Publications. Working Woman had a fairly long run of 30 years, from 1972 to 2001. It incorporated (in 1997) Executive Female (0199-2880), which superseded (1978-1979) Executive Female Digest (0160-8134).

Working Woman Weekends
Winter 1987, Premier Issue, Supplement to Working Woman (0145-5761)
ISSN: (na)
Subject: Women--Lifestyle
Status: Ceased 198?
Working Woman/McCall's Group
342 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10172
Editor: John Stoltenberg
Working Woman Editor-in-Chief: Anne Mollegen Smith
Publisher: Carol Anderson Taber