Jessica Patterson

Meredith's Shape magazine spent the last year thinking over and creating its own evolution. Shape, which is published 10 times a year, reaches a rate base of 2.5 million and an audience of 14 million across platforms, focuses on healthy living for the 21st century woman. The magazine, which was launched in 1981, underwent a redesign which touched on every aspect of the brand – from its content, to design, fonts, advertisers and voice. The new look debuted April 17 on newsstands with the May issue which featured actress Kate Mara on the cover.

Future's aim is to connect musicians to content, commerce and community across its portfolio of music making and music listening titles. In recent months, on its way to having the strongest and largest music portfolio in the world, it has not only experienced editorial growth, but also revenue growth, expanded its editorial team and diversified its content offerings and expects audiences to grow too.

Last month, Meredith's Food & Wine launched a pop-up studio, a content hub for editorial staff in Aspen, during the Food & Wine Classic which ran June 15-17.

Penske Media, founded in 2003, has made significant investments over the years in over 18 trade and consumer brands including Variety, WWD, Robb Report, Deadline, Beauty Inc. and HollywoodLife among others. In December, the company announced a strategic investment in Wenner Media, and with it, a controlling stake in the iconic music and culture bible Rolling Stone. 

A couple of weeks ago, The Economist published a graphic novel on Instagram, called "Data Detectives". The production of the piece was a group effort involving Oliver Morton, senior editor and briefings editor; Jon Fasman, Washington DC correspondent; Rob Gifford, Britain correspondent, Stephen Petch, art director, Ria Jones, digital and social media picture editor, Ben Shmulevitch, editorial designer; Matt Withers, graphic designer and Simon Myers, freelance graphic designer and illustrator. 

Last month, Penske Media Corporation announced a new editor-in-chief, Paul Croughton. Croughton, an award-winning journalist with 20 years experience and founding editor of Robb Report in the UK, will oversee editorial operations in the US. "We're energised and excited by Paul's fresh perspective as well as his unwavering commitment to best-in-class storytelling and content creation," chairman and CEO of Penske Media, Jay Penske, said in a release. 

A new Canadian news startup is banking on the shift to reader revenue, and filling a void in the country's news ecosystem by offering subscribers a handful of high-quality features each week. It is modelled after Silicon Valley's The Information; think Axios meets The Financial Times.

Earlier this month, National Geographic and The Wall Street Journal partnered to launch a new magazine, “Far & Away,” a luxury business travel publication. The first issue was distributed with the May 19 edition of the Journal, and the publishers hope to print it twice this year with the goal of increased frequency in 2019.

Reader's Digest's RD.com has been experiencing strong growth over the last six to eight months. The Trusted Media Brands brand's unique visitors in March 2018 reached 6.7 million, a 58.2 per cent increase from the same period in 2017, according to the latest comScore report.  

Jessica Pels was named digital director of Cosmopolitan.com in January. She oversees the content and editorial operations for all of Cosmopolitan’s digital efforts. In the five months since her appointment, Pels has helped revamp the publication's digital presence, seen Cosmopolitan.com's traffic increase by 36 per cent, and launched half a dozen varied projects.