“Celebrating women over 55” Alex Grayshon, Senior Account Manager, gives her view on the launch of Platinum Magazine

Last week DC Thomson launched a brand new magazine, Platinum, in an attempt to fill the gap in the market for an age-appropriate title for women 55+.

With recent closures and a continuous drop in circulations, it may seem like a risky move to launch a brand new magazine within this declining market. However, research shows that women 55+ are still very much in favour of traditional media channels, with 28% reading more than 2 magazines per month.

The over-55s continue to be misrepresented by brands, who either pitch them far too young or far too old. The general consensus seems to be that they are “close minded” and “socially conservative”. This is a far cry from how this group actually view themselves. Over half consider themselves more relaxed and open-minded as they have got older. The over-55s are a growing demographic and currently account for 33% of the UK population, yet own 80% of the country’s wealth. With such an important economic group, why has it taken brands so long to portray them accurately?

DC Thomson identified this gap early on, and since 2013 they have being conducting research on women over 55. They found that current titles were no longer reflecting this age group with topics increasingly targeted towards a younger demographic. This has resulted in approximately 40% of the audience considering themselves too old to partake in the latest beauty and fashion trends.

‘Platinum’ acknowledges that their readers are in the prime of their lives and having the time of their lives too. Its tagline is ‘live, look and feel fabulous’ and the content aims to reflect this with inspirational, empowering, informative and entertaining articles curated for real women over 55. At The Grove Media, we have become firm fans and early supporters of Platinum for representing a previously ignored audience for who they are in the real world. Hopefully the new title encourages and inspires other brands to do the same.