Oy Vey! Another Magazine Launch?

Jewish Living

With cash to burn and “modern Jewish women” in his crosshairs, ex-advertising executive Daniel Zimerman is set to launch Jewish Living next week, a “thoroughly modern magazine” that aims to “celebrate Jewish home, family and cultural life.”

The bimonthly magazine, boasting “How-To” features on Chanukah parties, Friday night dinners and something entitled “Stop Coddling Your Kids,” will launch with a rate base of 100,000—part newsstand, part pre-launch subscriptions sold to Jewish associations—targeting Jewish professional women aged 25-34 with a median household income of over $125,000.

That older demographic, Zimerman says, will differentiate Jewish Living from its closest competitor, Heeb. “We’re not creating anything that is earth-shatteringly innovative,” Zimerman tells Folio:. “Heeb—I love it, I’ve been a subscriber since day one—talks to a younger demographic, the 18-to-25-year-old. Our reader is slightly older; stylistically, we’re different.” Jewish Living, in other words, is more Martha than Matisyahu.

When Heeb readers turn 29 and start having kids, Zimerman says, “Our hope is that they’ll start reading our magazine.”

Zimerman, a recent New Yorker by way of Toronto, has spent the last four years developing the concept, enlisting assorted high-level consultants and search firms. Zimerman recruited ex-Saveur executive editor and parenting.com founding editor Liza Schoenfein as Jewish Living’s editor-in-chief; ex-Western Interiors exec Kim Amzallag as publisher; and Carol Moskot, ex-Toronto Life art director and Zimerman’s wife, as creative director.

While declining to give specific financials, Zimerman says the “multi-multi-million dollar” launch has a “nice war chest” to survive for three to four years with comfortable revenue goals before turning a profit.

The 100-page launch issue has 25 pages of advertising—primarily food ads. “It’s 35 percent food editorial,” says Zimerman.