Ever since Sally O’Sullivan walked out of IPC this summer to set up
her own publishing company, Cabal Communications, the media world has
been waiting with baited breath to see what her first launch will
be.
They need wait no longer. It’s called Real Homes, it launches on 15
October (along with Cabal’s men’s magazine, Front) and it is edited by
Sarah Bravo.
Bravo herself is something of a O’Sullivan protegee. She started her
career as a trainee at the National Magazine Company when O’Sullivan
edited Good Housekeeping and followed her to IPC in 1996. Most recently,
she launched Living etc under O’Sullivan’s auspices at IPC and now she
is in charge of launching Cabal’s new projects. ’I will probably be on
Real Homes for the first two issues, then move across to some of the
contract titles and new launches we are planning for next year,’ she
says.
The home interest market is staggeringly buoyant, with 15 titles
competing on the newsstands and all doing well in circulation terms.
According to Bravo, these are clearly delineated into three sectors.
There are the middle-class and middle-aged titles, which include Ideal
Home and Homes and Gardens; the super cool style police, which include
Wallpaper and Elle Decoration, and there are the citrus brigade - which
Bravo defines as ’first time home owners on a low budget who decide to
paint their living rooms citrus’.
She is pitching Real Homes at a new market completely. ’Our reader is a
woman who is into her home but not obsessed by it,’ she explains. ’She
hasn’t got time for DIY and doesn’t really like it although she watches
all the home-based TV programmes. She has a part-time job to boost the
family income, probably holidays in the Caribbean and lives on a modern
estate. I expect she has been reading the women’s weeklies but finds the
current crop of rather lavish homes magazines make her feel small,’
explains Bravo.
Although she has not really dealt with PR people on a day-to-day basis
since her days as a beauty assistant on Good Housekeeping, she is keen
for them to get involved in the magazine. ’The problem we are finding is
that the PR industry is really geared up to tell us about London, its
fabulous shops and great opportunities, but that is not what I need to
know about,’ she says. ’We need to shift the basis of the magazine out
of London and to lose that rather exclusive metropolitan feel that a lot
of these magazines have. We are also keen to get involved in promotions
and give-aways because we want our readers to feel pampered by every
page.’
Sally O’Sullivan herself is fulsome in her praise of Bravo. ’She came to
Good Housekeeping on work experience and instantly shone,’ she says.
’She understands that the primary focus of a magazine editor is the
reader.’
As you would expect Bravo’s home is a monument to good taste. Her
office, however, is another matter. ’We are just moving in,’ she says,
surveying the barren rooms on Euston Road. ’We are all allowed to pick
our own furniture, which may sound great, but it means we have got some
hideous clashes. I’ll have to sort it out.’
HIGHLIGHTS
1996
Associate editor, Ideal Home
1996
Deputy editor, Ideal Home
1997
Editor, Living etc
1998
Editor, Real Home
