Hearst's Susan Toepfer Says Quick & Simple is Better

"We realized Thanksgiving is the perfect storm for women with lazy husbands. So we are dealing with that in our Thanksgiving issue and we created a Laz-o-meter for rating husbands."

Save Big! Great Looks for Less. Five-minute Beauty Plans. Surefire Weight Loss. Easy Recipes. Coupons & Prizes. Best Used Cars. All in a new weekly magazine from Good Housekeeping for only $1.49.

Quick & Simple is Hearst Magazines' first weekly publication and a natural for brand extension into online, video-on-demand and DVD content. I met editor Susan Toepfer, who joined Hearst from Gruner & Jahr in February, and Hearst Magazines' president Cathie Black for lunch at Michael's Restaurant, Manhattan's media and celebrity hang-out, where they talked about providing readers with a magazine that does not obsess on celebrity and sex, but instead on home and family.

Continue Article

"We believed there was a place for a weekly magazine for the 35-year old woman who is a Wal-Mart, Cosco or Sam's Place shopper, who's shopping for her family twice weekly," commented Susan. "We want to give them a little treat for when they're at the soccer game, or waiting to pick up their kids, or need a quick idea for dinner." A story about "cheating" in Quick & Simple does not focus on marital relations like many women's magazines but instead on how to cheat in preparing a meal by taking some intelligent short-cuts, or how to substitute one ingredient for another. "Relationship" articles are more about simple ways you can help a grieving friend, help with your children's homework, or improve relationships with in-laws and co-workers. The closest Quick & Simple has come to being celebrity-centric is Guiding Light star Michelle Ray Smith's Top 5 Beauty Secrets.

Quick & Simple editor Susan Toepfer, husband Lorenzo Carcaterra and family

"There is a whole group of people who are more value driven, who don't care about what celebrities do," Susan points out. "They care more about what real people do and they care about others in their lives. Even people with money aren't into conspicuous consumption. A lot of women see lifestyles in magazines they can't afford. We're about showing they can afford a great life. I appreciate our readers and want to give them a fun, quick good time with tons of value and information for their everyday lives."

With 87 percent of readers rating the first dozen weekly issues better than eight on a ten-point scale, Susan and Cathie are confident they have a winner. They're receiving more than one thousand e-mails daily from readers and are currently developing plans to launch online reader forums. "Women are hungry for information to help them through their busy days," Susan points out. "Fifty-five percent of our readers have made recipes from the magazine. Most women today are opening their cabinets to start dinner after 4 o'clock, and they need recipes that call for ingredients they have on hand. They're under incredible pressure and our recipes respond to this." Susan adds "the other side of that coin is every supermarket today has really exotic ingredients, so we feature products like bok choy and we're a resource to help them prepare simple dishes with unusual ingredients."

While diet and nutrition is a staple of many women's magazines, Susan points out her editorial product is "a reinforcement of our readers' own diets. We share the success stories of real women and offer health education from Weight Watchers. Our readers feel like they are reading about their own lives."

"This is my favorite group of readers," says Cathie. "They are down-to-earth, direct, and they are constantly giving us feedback." Susan adds, "their values are the salt of the earth. One reader wrote and asked for a tip on how to deal with a lazy husband, and we realized Thanksgiving is the perfect storm for women with lazy husbands. So we are dealing with that in our Thanksgiving issue and we created a Laz-o-meter for rating husbands."

Susan brings her own personal experiences to the editorial content and plans for Quick & Simple. "There have been a lot of times I had to say 'no' to my children because we live on a budget, and we all deal with the same issues and realities. Put me in front of anyone's refrigerator and I'll cook up a great meal. I love to cook." She admits editing Quick & Simple has made her more money conscious. "We have a holiday gift guide coming out with gifts under $45. It made me wonder why we spend so much on gifts when there are so many great inexpensive gifts."

Each issue of Quick & Simple has two to four pages of coupons and special offers, plus financial advice, organization tips, and health and beauty advice. There are only six to eight pages of advertising in each 60-page issue as Hearst focuses on serving readers and building the subscriber base to one million in the next three years.

www.Quickandsimple.com does not yet reflect the bold, clean, cheerful, modern and market-driven design of the magazine, but the site has introduced several interactive features and will inevitably soon incorporate video streaming, blogging and increased interconnections between editors and readers. "Our readers are web savvy," says Susan. "They are younger and very sophisticated about technology."

Susan grew up in Cincinnati and was the only family member to leave Ohio, leaving her parents and two brothers to attend college at Bennington (Vermont) and then moved to New York, "my only skill was writing and New York is the place if you're a writer." (However, she admits to having been a pretty good dessert chef while at Bennington.) Before joining Quick & Simple, she was the editor for the controversial Rosie magazine.

To contact Susan Toepfer, e-mail susan@quickandsimple.com