EXCLUSIVE

SECOND UPDATE: Zinio is providing subscribers with a refund voucher instead of a full monetary refund. Subscribers can use the voucher’s value towards an alternate magazine (outside of Woman’s World) but will have to pay the difference in excess of the voucher amount.

FIRST UPDATE (as of 7:51 PM ET): Subscribers to the digital version of Soap Opera Digest should contact their provider immediately. A rep for Zinio, one of the leading digital magazine subscription providers with over 6,000 publications available, tells us they are allowing subscribers to continue with the swapping from Soap Opera Digest to Woman’s World, or will allow subscribers to cancel their subscriptions and initiate a refund. To submit a support ticket, click here.

INITIAL REPORT (as of 5:36 PM ET): With the November 13, 2023 cover issue of Soap Opera Digest being the magazine’s last ever as a weekly print magazine, subscribers will soon see their subscriptions transferred to Woman’s World, a health, beauty and nutrition magazine for women over 50, Soap Opera Network has learned. Additionally, the first of four planned special print editions of Soap Opera Digest will released on newsstands in 2024.

A rep for a360media, owner of both magazine brands, tells us, “The Soap Opera Digest brand will live on as a special edition magazine, available on newsstands in 2024. In the meantime, our subscription team will be reaching out to subscribers to let them know their remaining balance of Soap Opera Digest issues left to serve will be transferred to one of our flagship brands, Woman’s World, a bestselling weekly magazine.”

The rep also notes that in addition to the special edition magazine, “Much of the content you’ve come to love in our Soap Opera Digest print edition, including breaking news, exclusive story previews and interviews with your favorite stars, will continue to be available on our social media sites and at soapoperadigest.com.”

On Monday, October 30, a note from the staff of Soap Opera Digest was published on their website, which at the time only noted that the magazine would be “publishing at a reduced frequency moving forward.” The message also contained a link for all questions regarding subscriptions. A few days later, the link began redirecting to a page telling subscribers, “Unfortunately, Soap Opera Digest is no longer being published as a weekly magazine, effective with the November 13th, 2023 issue. Please rest assured that as soon as more details are available, we will be notifying all of our subscribers.”

As of October 31, 2023, the Soap Opera Digest staff has transitioned to an online environment with news, interviews and more published on soapoperadigest.com, as noted by the rep. Further, beginning Monday, November 6, fresh content that fell under key sections as shown in the print magazine began publishing to the website, including a “Take Five [Interview] with Mark Grossman,” a “QuickTake [Interview] with Veronica Redd,” and “It’s Only My Opinion [Column] by Carolyn Hinsey,” among others. At press time, it was unclear what schedule the staff would follow for releasing content based on features shown in the weekly magazine.

Strategically, it makes sense for a360media to transfer subscriptions to Woman’s World. An annual subscription to the magazine (50 issues) is fairly equal to an annual subscription to Soap Opera Digest (52 issues), with just about $5-$10 separating the two in terms of pricing. The same goes for a six-month subscription, with Woman’s World releasing about 20 issues during that period, while Soap Opera Digest released 26 issues.

Among circulation figures, Woman’s World had a circulation average of 831,172 for the six months that ended on June 30, 2023, according to the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM), which placed the magazine 47th out of 165 magazines that provided their paid and verified circulation figures. Out of the 195 magazines tracked overall for that period by AAM, 30 magazines did not submit/provide a publisher statement by their press time.

Prior to a360media’s 2022 acquisition of the publishing portfolio from Bauer Media Group, which included Woman’s World, First for Women and the Bauer U.S. bookazine business, Bauer transferred subscriptions for the discontinued ABC Soaps In Depth and CBS Soaps In Depth to Woman’s World.

Woman’s World was founded in 1981 by  European magazine publisher, Heinrich Bauer Verlag of Hamburg, Germany.