The first issue of Harper’s Bazaar magazine in Ukraine will appear in December 2008. The Ukrainian version of the international fashion magazine will be published by Independent Media Sanoma Magazines Ukraine publishing house. The publishing license was acquired from Hearst Corporation, an American group of companies. This was reported to MediaBusiness by Tatyana Dzinko, the Public Relations Manager at the publishing house.

The company did not disclose the financial terms of the deal and the volume of the investment in the project, but it announced that the magazine is planned to reach the break even point in two years.

The office of the Editor in Chief at Harper’s Bazaar Ukraine was taken by Natalya Guzenko, who had been heading Pink magazine (KP Media) for five years. Eight persons will be recruited to the local editorial staff of Harper’s Bazaar to prepare about 40% of its content. The other 60% will consist of American version’s materials.

The magazine will start with the circulation of 25,000 copies. It will be published in Russian. The target audience of Harper’s Bazaar are women living in large cities, having high income and social status. “I do not think that Harper’s Bazaar has any direct competitors for this moment”, claims Natalya Guzenko, the Editor in Chief.

Independent Media Sanoma Magazines Ukraine publishes the Ukrainian versions of such magazines as Cosmopolitan, Cosmopolitan Beauty, Men’s Health, Prevention, Domashniy Ochag /Hearth and Home/, Story. In December 2008, two more magazines will be launched – Harper’s Bazaar and National Geographic. The company is the part of Sanoma Magazines International, the unit of Sanoma Magazines, which is one of the largest publishers of popular magazines in Europe. The company publishes more than 300 magazines in 13 countries. In Ukraine, it has been working since 1999.