THE IRISH Farmers Journal is stepping into the world of magazine publishing from today, with the launch of Irish Country Magazine, a 100-page lifestyle glossy aimed at the farming weekly’s 97,000 female readers.

Broadcaster, PhD student and former Rose of Tralee winner Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabheáin graces the cover of the first edition of the quarterly magazine, which is priced at €2.99 and is edited by Mairead Lavery, who also edits the Irish Farmers Journal’s Irish Country Living supplement.

The supplement has enjoyed a “great increase in readership”, says David Leydon, the paper’s circulation, sales and marketing manager, with figures from the Joint National Readership Survey showing a rise from 145,000 readers in 2010 to 179,000 in 2011. This 34 per cent growth in readership – which Leydon attributes to its “proactively positive” tone – prompted the company to test the water by publishing five free glossy magazines with the Irish Farmers Journal over the past 12 months. “It allowed us to do more consumer advertising and it also gave another product to our readers. There was very positive feedback.”

The company is now hoping that some of that feedback will translate into sales for the new magazine, which will be a mix of lifestyle, wellbeing, nutrition, fashion, beauty and – with its rural readership base in mind – features on growing your own.

Psychologist, columnist and broadcaster Maureen Gaffney and chefs Neven Maguire and Catherine Fulvio will write for the publication, which will be printed by the Boylan Print Group in Drogheda, with an initial print run of 35,000.

The Irish Farmers Journal itself is printed by The Irish Times Limited at its Citywest plant, which does not have glossy printing capabilities.

Recognising that there are “very different skillsets” required to publish lifestyle glossies, Leydon and Lavery last year flew to Stockholm to visit Swedish group LRF Media, which began as a publisher of farming newspapers, but is now a major magazine publisher that includes the Swedish edition of Cosmopolitan in its portfolio.

Launching print titles in the current environment may seem like a brave venture, but Leydon describes Irish Country Magazine as a “low-risk” move that has the potential for “significant upside”.

The Irish Farmers Journal, which is published by the Agricultural Trust, has managed to buck print circulation trends, selling 72,046 copies per week in the second half of 2011, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, up from about 67,000 five years earlier. “Everyone’s working a little bit harder and doing a lot more,” says Leydon.