Divapreneurs

I just got the first three issues of a new magazine sent to me by the publisher to help them promote their publication to my clients who might be potential subscribers.

The magazine, called "Divapreneurs" with the tag line "Committed to Colorado's Business Women" seems to be a good resource for women business owners. The name is catchy and obviously makes the connection of women and business owner. After reading the cover letter and thumbing through a few of the articles, I got the feel for the type of articles they were going to be writing and who they were targeting.

I then closed the issues and laid them down, and noticed something I thought was peculiar on the covers of each of the magazines. You can make your own assessment of who you think their target market is by browsing through the online magazine here. My opinion is that I don't think the magazine cover is on target for who they are marketing toward.

These are the covers of the first three issues of the magazine. Without reading anything inside, my first inclination is it's a business version of Maxim Magazine. It appears that they are promoting long, tan legs in high heels instead of business women in Colorado. As a result I would imagine that more men than women would pick up the magazine based on the picture.

As a male I am required to stay relatively neutral on issues such as women's rights and what's appropriate in the workplace between men and women. For the most part, this gets dictated to me by lawyers and other women across the country. However, in my ignorant male mind, it seems a step backward for women to be self publishing a magazine about women in the business world where women have been long thought of as sexy secretaries and executives who have slept their way to the top and then put images related to that stereotype on the cover. I especially think they've missed their audience because the women featured in the articles of the magazine, while are nice looking, aren't exactly the modelesque figures on the cover.

But, what do I know, I'm just a dumb guy who doesn't understand women anyway. What could I possibly know. Oh wait, this article (written by a woman) uses the definition of a divapreneur as "a talented and confident woman, who undertakes and operates a new venture, and assumes some accountability for the inherent risks"

Again, I didn't know that talented and confident required long tan legs, but I'll sure make note of that the next time I go to hire a talented, confident individual.