Inside Willa Bennett’s First Issue of ‘Cosmopolitan’

Willa Bennett wants readers to fall in love with her take on Cosmopolitan.

This week, the nearly 140-year-old title drops its February issue, Bennett’s first as editor-in-chief. Called the “Love Issue,” Bennett said it encapsulates her vision for the brand, which is informed not only by her age — 30, making her the youngest EIC of Cosmopolitan ever — but also her own perspective as a queer woman and, at this point, a fairly seasoned editor-in-chief (she previously held the top job at Highsnobiety).

Her vision for the publication: To retain what Cosmo is known for — groundbreaking takes on sex and relationships — but update it for today’s reader, exploring gender identity and sexuality, dating app strategy and prioritising self pleasure over tips to please your man.

“Cosmopolitan has had such an amazing, iconic legacy. What [former editor-in-chief] Helen Gurley Brown was able to do in the sex and relationship space was so important and iconic,” said Bennett, who began her career as an intern at the teen-focused Seventeen, where she also currently serves as editor-in-chief. “My vision is to really bring that to the next generation and acknowledge how womanhood has changed over the years.”

While love, sex and relationships are front and centre, political coverage, which became a Cosmo cornerstone during former editor Joanna Coles’ tenure in the mid-2010s, is taking a bit of a backseat. While Bennett says “we’re not going to shy away from that,” noting reproductive health as a particular area of interest, since she’s joined, politics has been removed from its online navigation bar.

“The personal is inherently political, so instead of collecting all of that content under one vertical, we will be covering politics through the lens of how it impacts our audience’s lives,” Bennett elaborated.

The goal is to find what readers are engaging with and lean into that, all the more important in a time when Cosmopolitan is not competing as much with other magazines as it is with creators on TikTok and Instagram. Bennett’s edict is to make Cosmo a must-read for a generation that came of age as magazines were already well into their decline.

Her strategy to do so is rooted in getting access to the people Cosmo readers care about. In her first issue, on the cover is real-life couple and former child stars Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song, who, despite being Millennials by birth, are “all over TikTok,” she said. Their Cosmo cover marks not only the couple’s first time doing press together, but also the first time a couple has ever covered the magazine. There’s also an interview with pop star Gracie Abrams about her personal life and relationship with her sexuality. A beauty spread stars rapper and actress Aliyah’s Interlude, best known for her role on FX’s hit show “English Teacher.” There’s also an interview with Serena Page and Kordell Beckham from the American edition of “Love Island,” which Bennett said is meant to “take them seriously and in a way that reality stars often aren’t.” There’s also a new tech column, meant to highlight an area readers are engaging with more, which this month spotlights device accessories.

“[Bennett] has her finger on the pulse of Gen-Z in a tangible way,” said Ronak Patel, senior vice president and general manager of the lifestyle group at Hearst Magazines. Under Bennett’s leadership, she added, Cosmo is “going to be a place for an audience to discover who they are, what they want, who they love.”

The approach of focusing on the people readers want more of, in some ways, is carrying on the work of the previous editor Jessica Giles, who brought in a number of Gen-Z favourites as cover stars, including “Espresso” songstress Sabrina Carpenter, “Call Her Daddy” podcast host Alexandra Cooper and TikTokker turned budding pop star Bella Poarch.

But Bennett said that in her edition, “you’ll notice the voice has become a little bit more refined.” The brand is also building on its legacy of pushing boundaries when it comes to coverage of relationships and sex, from the more lighthearted (a recent headline is “I Had Sex With My Boyfriend on a Paddle Board”) to the more informative, like an October package on polyamory.

When it comes to fashion, Bennett said the coverage will focus on “personal style,” but is endeavouring to bring more independent designers and vintage clothes to Cosmo’s pages. On the February issue’s cover, which was styled by the publication’s new fashion director Brandon Tan, Song wears Sandy Liang, while Culkin is dressed in Bode and both are covered in an Hèrmes blanket.

“Personal style is so important to this generation, but also just in how we all express ourselves,” she said.

Bennett said her vision is already seeing traction on Cosmo’s social channels, where engagement is up 121 percent and reach has increased over 50 percent since she took the helm in September. It’s proving a compelling proposition for advertisers, too. The February issue features Eminence Organic Skincare as a new advertiser; other partners include Pandora and Bumble, which will sponsor a Valentine’s Day party at Boom in New York City in honour of the new issue. Bennett also co-hosted an event with Versace in November.

Still, there are still larger headwinds to fight against in the industry, and Cosmo’s parent company, Hearst Magazines, has not been immune to those challenges. In November, the company laid off nearly 200 employees, including 11 who worked at Cosmopolitan. To do what it can to combat those declines, Cosmo is doubling down on its membership model and commerce content (where fourth-quarter revenue was up 10 percent year-over-year), as well as unveiling new initiatives, launching a book imprint with publisher Sourcebooks last October.

Patel is hoping that Bennett’s vision for the brand, too, will help distinguish it from competitors.

“The audience craves authenticity more than ever before, you have to speak with intelligence and honesty,” she said. “And I think she really has a talent for that.”