Avon Products and Hachette Filipacchi to Launch New Magazine

Posted on November 15, 1997

Avon Products, Inc. and Hachette Filipacchi Magazines announced that they will launch a new magazine for women. The two companies will together publish Athena: Common Sense, Uncommon Style, designed to provide insightful information about beauty, well-being, and lifestyle for women.

"Athena represents a new dimension in publishing," explains David Pecker, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hachette Filipacchi Magazines. "The magazine will deliver the spirit of beauty and high fashion along with accessible information and service. We are thrilled to be in this unique joint publishing venture with Avon."

Debuting in the U.S. with the May/June launch issue in April 1998, Athena is set for a bimonthly schedule. The publication will be initially distributed through the 440,000 U.S. Avon Sales Representatives, as well as newsstands. Cover price will be $3.50, with special pricing for Avon Representatives and their customers. Future global opportunities will be explored to bring Athena to other markets around the world, tapping the powerful distribution network of more than 2 million Avon Sales Representatives worldwide.

Athena will be a contemporary, sleek beauty and lifestyle magazine delivering relevant information for today's women. The magazine is named for Athena, goddess of wisdom and patroness of the arts and health, who represents women's strengths, wisdom, and compassion. Editorial will cover beauty, fashion, wellness, fitness, nutrition, career, and lifestyle, with the mission to help the Athena reader move ahead in both her personal and professional life -- with common sense and uncommon style.

Bayly Ledes, former Beauty Director at ELLE, will serve as Editor in Chief. Guillaume Bruneau, previously Editorial and Creative Director of Sportswear International and a Partner of In Fashion New York, will serve as Art Director.