Working Mother publisher to drop Working Woman

The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — New management has decided to discontinue Working Woman magazine and may move the staff of its larger sister publication, Working Mother, from Manhattan to suburban Westchester County, the new publisher said.

The two magazines are among the assets acquired by MCG Capital of Arlington, Va., last week as a result of the foreclosure of MacDonald Communications.

Carol Evans of Chappaqua, N.Y., bought the assets of Working Mother magazine from MCG Capital and has named herself publisher. MCG Capital is financially backing Evans.

Evans sold advertising for the first issue of Working Mother in 1979. She said the new operation will be centered on the magazine. Its "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" list is one of its best-known features and is due out in October. Evans worked at the magazine as ad director and later as publisher in 1980-89.

Corporate interest in working mothers has grown from 1986, when the magazine first published its list. Back then, it could find only 35 companies that had anything to show magazine researchers as beneficial for its readership. Today, 68 percent of all executive women are mothers, Evans said.

Working Mother has a circulation of 925,000, up from 700,000 when Evans left the publication. Paid advertising pages are down 8 percent from a year ago, a figure that Evans said was less than the double-digit decreases that other magazines have seen in the current economic slowdown.

Working Woman, with a circulation of 635,000, will be discontinued after its 25th anniversary issue next month as a cost-cutting measure. Evans said the magazine is being re-evaluated and could return next year.

Twenty-eight staffers at Working Woman went unhired after the new management took over; Evans said 50 remain.