Friday, January 29, 1999
Rendez-vous with Nicola Willis
Thank you Nicola for accepting our " rendez-vous ." May I ask you to introduce yourself?
I am the editor of STOP! "the only magazine for people who want to stop smoking."
The first issue was launched in the UK this month.
1. Can we go back a little to the origin of STOP!
When did you decide to work on such a magazine, and why?
I had the idea for STOP! Magazine some 3 years ago when I was working as a smoking cessation researcher.
It struck me that if you could have successful magazines on the subject of weight control then why not smoking cessation?
Knowing the subject well I realized that it was at least as big an issue if not bigger and I felt that we needed to normalize smoking cessation and put the knowledge people need to quit in front of them in a fun, user-friendly format.
Anyway, I spent some time talking to colleagues and developing the concept before getting national market research done and then approaching potential distributors and advertisers.
It was a long process but I was determined to make it a reality.
2. The numbers concerning smokers in the UK have just been released. How many people do you figure could become regular readers and subscribers?
Are you satisfied with your first issue as far as your circulation goals are concerned?
There are about 13 million smokers in the UK of whom 70% say they'd like to quit.
This is our obvious target readership but we're also aiming STOP! at the friends and families of smokers and the health professionals whose job it is to help them stop.
Sadly many doctors and nurses are very ignorant about quit techniques and cessation methods so it's essential to educate them too.
STOP! Has terrific potential as a resource in waiting room and clinic situations because it is up to date, non-threatening and fun.
It's available on mail-order subscription at favorable rates so that health Prof's can obtain multiple subs on behalf of their patients.
That way hopefully some of the poorest smokers will be able to see it in their local surgeries.
Dentists are also very interested because of the links with oral cancers so we're sending copies out to them too.
We're also distributing it through a national pharmacy chain called Superdrug. It's on sale in their stores all over the UK for a cover price of £1.75.
Our first run was of 50,000 copies but we hope to widen the distribution and increase that figure substantially soon.
3. One difficulty I could imagine with the readership of STOP! is that if people succeed to quit they will not keep reading it and if they do not succeed they could as well decide to discontinue?
How can you deal with readers who are at very different stages of their quitting experience?
STOP! is relevant to people in all stages of the quitting process and if people dip in and out of reading it that's fine with us.
The editorial content covers issues ranging from early motivation right through to picking yourself up after a relapse and of course we're covering all the quitting techniques currently available so as to arm people with the best info and thus the best chance of success.
4. A recent survey about the quitline showed that a sizable number of calls come from very young smokers.
Are you also going to try to reach out to those young and very young smokers or is it exclusively a magazine for adults?
From our national market research it seemed clear that STOP! appealed mostly to people in the age range from 16 to 35 so we're aiming largely at this group which obviously includes adults with young families and a lot of pregnant women so it's a really good cohort to reach out to.
Maybe we'll be able to encourage them to try and stop sooner than they would otherwise have done.
5. Do you think that other tobacco control issues like ETS, taxes, litigation, advertising, labeling, are relevant to quitting?
Do you intend to cover any of them or is your focus going to remain pretty much on cessation as an individual experience?
Successful stopping is the main subject covered in STOP! but we will be looking at a wide range of issues that are important to our readers and that could well include ETS and taxation on cigarettes.
It's a huge and fascinating subject as I'm sure all of you appreciate so I don't anticipate running out of material!!
What you feel like adding :
Must go now and immerse myself in the copy for the next issue, thanks for giving me the chance to wax lyrical about my obsession,
Thank you Nicola for taking the time to be with us today.
If you want more info about STOP!
stopmagazine@compuserve.com
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