New Life for Ms. Magazine

Ms. magazine was one of the milestones, as well as a chief booster, on the march of feminism in the '70s and '80s. But as feminism won more and more victories, Ms. allowed itself to become predictable and boring, losing the interest of both readers and advertisers. Eight months ago, it stopped publishing. Now Ms. is back, with a livelier appearance and a distinction rare in the magazine business: it does not accept or run ads. Arriving in subscribers' mailboxes this week is a revivified bimonthly that stresses the latest in feminist analysis and activism and that has a look resembling a handsome academic journal.

The editors plan to run domestic and international news, profiles and reviews, as well as fiction by established writers, and several intriguing new features, including Ecofeminism and Inner Space. Among notable pieces in the first issue are a well-reported article on women in Eastern Europe, a new poem by novelist Toni Morrison and a reprint of the 1972 classic Why I Want a Wife, by Judy Brady.

Ms. has chosen to start again at a time when women's service magazines are % in danger of losing their audience. Woman's Day has abandoned its search for a buyer, and Woman is shutting down.

Audacious in the face of this, the new Ms. has taken the earliest opportunity to blast the advertisers that had long boycotted its pages. Founding editor Gloria Steinem writes that Revlon decided not to advertise with Ms. in 1980 because a cover photo portrayed Soviet feminists without makeup. Not only that, says Steinem, Estee Lauder largely ignored Ms. because the magazine failed to mesh with Lauder's efforts to peddle a "kept-woman mentality." Ms. also presents an apologetic portfolio of ads it did run -- and wishes it hadn't.

The magazine's relaunch may be Steinem's last chance to save the pioneering monthly that she helped start in 1972. Before it was sold last fall to publisher Dale Lang, Ms. was losing $150,000 a month, and circulation has since dropped from 550,000 to under 100,000.

Publishing without benefit of advertising, admits editor in chief Robin Morgan, "goes against all the traditional wisdom. But Ms. always has. That's what we're about." Subscriptions will cost $40 a year; newsstand copies will sell for $4.50. This time around, success depends on the editors' ability to woo the sophisticated -- and choosy -- women whom the original Ms. helped create.