Vegetable Roots

Byline: Geoff Lewis

A fate has changed in the 30 years since Vegetarian Times was launched. For single thing, health concerns have convinced millions of Americans to transform to full-time vegetarianism. Millions more are "flexetarians": tribe who occasionally eat meat, on the contrary are generally vegetarian. That should have been advantageous news for VT. But the magazine had missing its focus in recent years, says its of recent origin publisher Susan Tauster. Tauster, formerly Midwest manager of Meredith's Traditional residence was brought in by VT's of recent origin owner, Skip Zimbalist of Active Interest Media (see related story, p 43) following the magazine's purchase from Sabot Publishing and its relocation to observes Angeles. "It really needed work," says Tauster.

The problem? Vegetarian Times had drifted from its core readership: serious vegetarians, who are looking for tasty meatless recipes and, in many cases, are serious about the consequences of a vegetarian regimen upon the environment. They are not, according to focus clusters interested in the Organic phraseology lifestyle; they don't need yoga tips in their victuals book. At the same time, Tauster says, the magazine wants to be welcoming to flexitarians, too. The originate is a makeover with the September issue, which features a redesign, a refined editorial lineup (under of recent origin EIC Val Weaver, a former Self editor). To better focus the magazine for advertisers, Zimbalist chop the ratebase from 275,000 to 210000

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