Brampton has shifted its targeted age upwards, to 35 plus, and away from the domestic sphere, such as the “my house is chaotic and my husband can’t find the sock drawer” confessional columns towards harder, more intelligent and often political features.This month’s edition, the first to incorporate fully Brampton’s ideas, features an interview with Tony Blair (an old friend), a polemic from newspaper columnist Suzanne Moore, and new regular features on technology and the arts.”I think women are interested in politics – not necessarily in the way that politics is written about in newspapers, but I think they are interested in how Tony Blair views family in Britain, for example,” she says. “I also felt very strongly that magazines were scared of the arts… but I think they are assuming women spend every weekend reading the review sections.. they don’t. They’re too busy.” The new Red also separates itself from its peers by consciously avoiding “parenting” articles. “It’s ‘me time’ – the kid and the husband are not in there,” she says “Child conscious but not child friendly. I want something that feeds into me.”And she is beefing up Red Direct, the magazine’s mail-order service, to capitalise on its brand potential.

“When we launched Elle, everyone called it Ell-ie, yet within three years everyone knew the magazine It’s about doing the same here. Within the marketplace, unless you can do that, you’re losing.” Brampton, who says that she edits “by instinct and gut reaction”, says Red should now be characterised by three key words: fast, useful, and glamorous That, and an emphasis on superior writing. Her first edition features a piece by Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho, on the death of political correctness, and future pieces are commissioned from novelists Kathryn Harrison and Rosie Thomas. (It’s “mythology”, she says, that good writers are expensive – they just need a lot of stroking.)If anyone can fulfil Red’s potential, it is likely to be Brampton.

She understands the media world inside out, and she admits that much of the goodwill she now carries, from fashion and beauty houses, for example, is ascribed to the exceptionally strong launch of Elle She also draws almost universal praise from other editors. (Colleagues in turn describe her as “straightforward but inspiring”, “newsy” and “unprecious”. Former colleagues remember her for a distinctly unladylike ability to “drink her mates under the table”).She does, however have to contend with the fact that the 35-plus age group have gone from famine to feast, with a plethora of rival launches, such as Eve Pollard’s Aura, as well as longer-standing competitors, such as National Magazines’ She Brampton is pragmatic “We’re at 180,000 and I’d like to get it to 200,000. I honestly don’t know how much we’ll be hampered by the other launches.