Victoria Plans a Romantic Return

Victoria magazine stopped publishing in 2003 after 16 years of articles about white lace bedding and romantic fireside dinners, along with inspiring profiles of women who started their own businesses selling handmade pillows and vintage bridal gowns. The magazine's many and devoted readers were crushed.

Now Hearst, the original publisher, is partnering with Hoffman Media, publisher of Southern Lady, TeaTime and Cooking With Paula Deen, in a joint venture to reissue Victoria as a bimonthly magazine, starting Oct. 30. The new publisher, headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., promises a "return to loveliness." Blogs are buzzing with jubilant fans saying Victoria was the only magazine that made them feel happy.

For the uninitiated, Victoria was not about living a prim Victorian lifestyle but about living graciously. Subscribers were not seeking articles on DIY deck building or how to stop husbands from cheating. They wanted lush photos of cottage gardens, snippets of poetry, ideas for romantic window treatments and recipes for intimate picnics. It had ads scented with homey potpourri. One frequent story line was about spirited entrepreneurs who launched companies based on their passions: selling retro Christmas ornaments online or turning ginger candles and scented wooden acorns into a multimillion-dollar aromatherapy powerhouse.

"Victoria was an oasis for women. It was for people who wanted every day to be beautiful, calm and serene," says Phyllis Hoffman, president of Hoffman Media and the new editor in chief of Victoria. "Does this happen every day? Heck no. But for me and others, the magazine was a visual vacation from daily life."

Fans included people like Robin Uler, senior vice president of operations at Washington's Marriott headquarters. Uler says she does not usually keep magazines but has saved stacks of old Victorias. Though not a traditionalist in style, Uler says, she was drawn to the magazine from the first time she saw it years ago on a newsstand in New York. She enjoyed settling down with it at home and mined it professionally for trends involving the food, beverage and spa businesses.

The magazine wrote about how readers aspire to live, she says, not necessarily how they do live. "You and I may never go to tea in white linen," Uler says, "but it really is a very nice thought."

Victoria had nearly a million readers when it folded. Hearst pulled the plug for many reasons: Loyalists will tell you about reader disillusionment when a new editor in 2001 changed the format and took Victoria in a more modern editorial direction. Advertising declined after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Since the magazine stopped publishing, loyal readers have networked online about favorite articles and lamented that there is no substitute. Rare copies from its first year of publication have sold for $100 on eBay, says Hoffman, who shelled out $1,000 for a complete 16-year set of Victorias because they were in short supply when she took over.

On paper, the magazine seems cut from the same pretty cloth as Martha Stewart Living, but Hoffman rejects that comparison. "Martha is very distant. Ours is very heart-to-heart. We have emotion in our magazine."

The first issue of Victoria will flutter onto newsstands at a cover price of $4.99 (for more information, visit http://www.victoriamag.com). In July, Hoffman mailed notices to previous subscribers; more than 225,000 have paid $19.98 for a six-issue subscription.

Victoria "never asked you to think about anything unpleasant," Mary Wagner of Oak Park, Ill., wrote in an e-mail, responding to a reporter's search for die-hard fans of the original publication. "It gave you a place to get away from it all for a little while in those exceptionally gorgeous photo spreads."

Wagner, editor of a technology magazine, wrote that she found Victoria's secret to be that it was refreshingly different from lifestyle magazines "where achieving a beautiful life seems to be all about the resources you can afford to throw at it."

She added: "The pleasures Victoria most often featured -- like a beautiful teapot or some new fabulous fabric -- were available to all. I hope the new Victoria does as well."