Media

Insider named new Redbook editor-in-chief

Hearst stayed low key and picked an insider as the new editor-in-chief of Redbook.

Meredith Rollins, who has been the executive editor since 2010, is replacing Jill Herzig, who was recently tapped to be the editor-in-chief of Dr. Oz The Good Life — the high-profile launch Hearst has with TV celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz.

The onetime Seven Sisters category of women’s service magazines has shrunk to five — and all are battling over dwindling ad pages and readers and against digital rivals.

Redbook has had to boost the number of free or “verified” copies it hands out each month to 139,838 so it could keep its overall promised circulation rate base of 2.2 million copies.

Last year, it underwent a big redesign aimed at capturing younger readers.

Steve Cohn, editor-in-chief of Media Industry Newsletter, said the move Friday says the Hearst execs “are happy with Redbook’s ‘new direction’ with greater emphasis on life-style and fashion and less on relationships.”

Or as one industry wag put it, “fewer kids, more sex.”