Notice9: Cooking magazine readjusts its recipe.

Byline: Rick Romell

Feb. 15--Reiman Publications is revamping one of its four cooking magazines, giving it a new title and seeking to re-establish its distinct identity after a circulation slide.

Quick Cooking, a bimonthly with a circulation of 1.5 million, is to become Simple & Delicious with the March-April issue.

The first copies of the new title will reach subscribers over the next couple of weeks and hit newsstands at the end of February, said Catherine Cassidy, senior vice president and editor in chief of the Greendale publisher.

Reiman President Barbara Newton said Quick Cooking circulation peaked at 3.1 million in 2001. She said circulation declined in part as Reiman launched more cooking publications and as many readers came to view Quick Cooking much as they viewed the publisher's flagship cooking magazine, Taste of Home.

Now, Newton said, Reiman is "very much going back to the original brand promises" of Quick Cooking -- providing kitchen-tested recipes that come largely from readers, use everyday ingredients and can be prepared in 30 minutes or less.

"We've been trying to make them really very differently positioned so that they serve their market," Newton said of Reiman's cooking titles. "No other publisher has four cooking magazines."

Reiman also puts out Light & Tasty and Cooking for 2, as well as magazines in such areas as gardening, country living and nostalgia. All told, the company's magazines had an average circulation of 14 million for the year that ended June 30, according to a securities filing by Reiman's corporate parent, The Reader's Digest Association Inc.

Cooking is a key area for Reiman. Circulation of its four cooking magazines totals about 6.4 million, according to figures from Reiman.

That total is down more than a third from cooking-title circulation for fiscal 2003, despite the launch in January 2005 of Cooking for 2. Circulation of Taste of Home and Light & Tasty also has fallen.

The general slide might be linked in part to Reiman's decision to bring out other cooking publications for newsstand sale.

Since Reader's Digest acquired Reiman in 2002, the publisher has sought to build single-copy sales.

Newton said that over the last few years, the company had introduced about 30 newsstand cooking publications -- from Reader's Digest-sized titles to $9.99 "book-a-zines."

"We realize as we do that, we cannibalize somewhat," she said.

With the newsstand publications, she said, Reiman is seeking to reach new readers but not at the expense of circulation.

Cassidy said Simple & Delicious will have a redesigned appearance geared in part toward increasing single-copy sales.

"We wanted to update the look, freshen it a little bit -- not go too upscale with it -- but have it be more competitive with other cooking titles on the market and yet keep the same friendliness that is pretty much the hallmark of all our magazines," she said.

The magazine is to have the same newsstand price, $3.99, and to continue Reiman's policy of including no advertising.

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Cooking magazine readjusts its recipe.