Time Inc. is stepping up its plans to relaunch Life magazine, whose world-famous photojournalism made it one of the publisher's best-known brands.
In its new incarnation, people familiar with the situation said, Life would be a supplement to daily U.S. newspapers instead of a stand-alone magazine.
Life, whose glossy pages chronicled World War II, the moon landings and decades of Hollywood and Broadway glamour, closed in 2000. But it remains a brand known to millions of Americans for whom its red-and-white logo is instantly recognizable, media analysts say.
"Life keeps coming back to life in various ways ever since it was first suspended," John Morton, a media analyst who heads Morton Research Inc. in Silver Spring, Maryland, said on Wednesday. "Of course, a lot will depend what the content (of the new venture) will turn out to be."
Sources said Time Inc. plans to reintroduce Life as a supplement published in Friday newspapers, with a target launch date of fall 2004 and an initial circulation of 10 million to 12 million.
One source said Time is in talks with newspaper publishers including the New York Daily News and Tribune Co., home of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, about the project. A Tribune spokesman declined comment, while the New York Daily News was not immediately available.
Time Inc., the publishing arm of Time Warner Inc., has not released many details about a Life relaunch. But it did say this week it appointed Bill Shapiro, managing editor of its custom publishing division, to the team working on the project. The team also includes Andy Blau, general manager of Time magazine, and Peter Bauer, most recently the president of People magazine.
A Friday distribution would avoid direct competition with the Sunday inserts Parade or Gannett Co Inc.'s USA Weekend. Both of those inserts have readership in the tens of millions and appear in hundreds of newspapers.
Life magazine, begun in 1936 by Henry Luce, was a weekly until 1972, then published only periodically until 1978 when it went to a monthly format. Time Inc. has continued to publish books under the Life brand such as "One Nation," an account of the attacks of Sept 11, 2001.
Life published many famous images over the years, such as the iconic World War II photo of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square to celebrate Japan's surrender and the end of the war. Other famous images include a formally attired audience watching the first full-length 3-D movie in Hollywood in 1952 and a June 1969 cover photo of the surface of the moon.
Morton said that a relaunched Life would need to distinguish itself from other newspaper supplements, which he said are heavily focused on celebrity coverage.
"One way to differentiate themselves is to be a little more of a heavyweight journalistically, either photographically or with written material," he said.