Family Circle and Woman's Day were both originally conceived as circulars for grocery stores (Piggly Wiggly and A&P);[2] McCall's and Redbook were known for a text-heavy format focusing on quality fiction; Good Housekeeping was aimed at affluent housewives;[3] and Ladies' Home Journal was originally a single-page supplement to a general interest magazine,[4] while Better Homes and Gardens began as a blending of a woman's magazine and a home design journal.
[6] In recent years, the focus has been on minor changes, such as updating the visual appeal or improving the paper stock on which the magazine is printed.
Publisher Meredith Corporation stated it would be "transitioning Ladies' Home Journal to a special interest publication".
A sample of the top twelve selling women's magazines conducted by an intern at the Columbia Journalism Review in 1992 revealed that the Seven Sisters had published substantially fewer articles on the topic of abortion than other popular magazines oriented toward a female readership.
As a consequence, Wal-Mart began selling copies of Redbook from behind a blinder designed to obscure the text on the cover of the magazine.