How to pitch the newly relaunched Victoria magazine

Hoffman’s company is bringing Victoria back to life, with a November/December relaunch issue and a print run of 650,000 copies. The magazine will appear six times a year in 2008. The relaunch is a joint venture with Hearst, which has provided the old mag’s subscriber database.

Hoffman Media, which also publishes Cooking with Paula Deen, is hoping that the magazine’s rabid fans will embrace the new book—especially since it will keep the spirit of the much-loved original publication.

“The readers think of the magazine as a place of tranquility—a place of renewal,” says Hoffman. “Their Victoria moment is when the magazine arrives, and the world stops. It’s beautiful and enriching to the senses.”

If that sounds like mighty flowery language about a magazine, it echoes the passions aroused by Victoria’s readers about the book. They still talk on Internet groups about an ill-fated redesign of the magazine just before Hearst shut it down. Hoffman takes pains to point out that the version she is resurrecting is the pre-redesign Victoria. The magazine will cover “romantic living,” including home and garden, fashion, food, decorating and entrepreneurial women.