More, better, higher, vitamin-enriched

"The mood is light, airy and refreshing. The tone is chatty, friendly and familiar."

So says Chatelaine of its repositioning under new Editor Kim Pittaway, being launched with next month's issue. The Rogers release goes on...

"Likened to an intimate relationship between girlfriends, Chatelaine's positioning is "woman to woman". And with this desire to connect more powerfully with Canadian women came the following manifestations on its pages:

• more stories about real women;
  
• a new "woman to woman" section - talking, sharing, laughing - about issues that affect and reflect women's lives; and
• open dialogue where women are invited to contribute to the "Back to You" and "You be the Expert" sections.
  

In addition, the popular services sections (Life, Health, Home & Garden, Beauty & Fashion and Food) have been redesigned to be more user-friendly. They're now easier to find and more functional."

This leads to some questions about Chatelaine "before" this makeover:

• Wasn't the magazine already "woman to woman"?
• Were there stories about "fake women"?
  
• And what made the service sections (the guts of the magazine) so hard to find and unfriendly?
  

Of course this kind of hype is inevitable as the new regime tries to distinguish itself from the ancien.