The Condé Nast title will launch its new look from the February 2017 issue, which goes on sale on 5 January.
The new format is 276x203mm, the same size as stablemate Vanity Fair, whereas the handbag size was around 20% smaller at 223x168mm. It will also be printed on thicker, brighter paper but Condé Nast declined to specify the make and grade.
Editor-in-chief Jo Elvin said the monthly title was recalibrating its offering in response to changing lifestyles and needs.
The publisher described the print experience as now being regarded as “more luxurious and indulgent, most likely to be consumed at home” in comparison to when Glamour launched in 2001 “when snacking on the print edition throughout the day was the norm”.
The magazine will have new layouts to take advantage of the larger page sizes, “taking the print title in a more sophisticated direction”.
The print format change was accompanied by a “step-change in editorial strategy” with content tailored for different platforms, which will see Glamour.com migrating to a new mobile-first platform.
Glamour costs £2 and had an ABC circulation of 296,719 in the period to the end of June 2016, with 95.3% of copies actively purchased.
Condé Nast also asserted that a paid-for strategy remained its route of choice to market, but that it did engage in “tightly-targeted sampling opportunities with like-minded partners” while also developing alternative paid-for distribution channels. It gave away around 5,500 promo copies a month according to the ABC report.
Printing will remain gravure at Prinovis in Nuremberg. Glamour switched from web offset production at Cooper Clegg to gravure in 2004, after its circulation rocketed to more than 570,000.
Although print sales have since declined, the magazine’s reach across all platforms has increased to 7 million, the publisher said.
This is the latest move in a series of changes that have seen consumer publishers grapple with declining print circulations while digital audiences – if not profits – have increased. Rival title Cosmopolitan standardised on a new ‘midi’ format last year, adopting a £1 price point at the same time. Its print circulation has since increased from 235,327 to more than 407,000 copies a month.
Elsewhere, Time Inc UK recently scrapped the print edition of circa 122,000 circulation monthly InStyle in favour of a “digital first” strategy.
