It's been exactly a year since Michelle Promaulayko became editor-in-chief of the women's spinoff Rodale launched in 2005. I've never met Promaulayko, and a spokeswoman said she wouldn't be available in time to comment on this, and I'm sure she's a very nice person. But the still-successful Cosmo business model is as follows: on the circulation side, huge newsstand sales achieved mostly through sexed-up cover lines, and on the advertising side, a cozy relationship with the beauty industry. Great for profits, bad for anyone looking for an unpatronizing read on health and fitness.

When Women's Health launched, there was reason to believe that the magazine would break the mold. The pages were information-dense, sometimes too much so, and there was a robust, slightly smart-ass energy that belied the faux you-go-girl tone of its competitors. There were fitness models on the cover, so there was no need to pretend that a micro-starlet with a project to plug actually had something to say about a healthy lifestyle. The magazine covered beauty back then too, but it also did reported pieces on hospital safety and travel stories on fly fishing. And it ran things like this:

(The caption reads, "We'll be kick-ass grannies.")

And this:

Even before hiring Promaulayko, editorial director Dave Zinczenko's fondness for all things Cosmo was well-documented. And when it comes to currying favor with the beauty industry, Zinczenko does not discriminate: He used the same strategy to beef up Men's Health's advertising base by creating the Men's Health Grooming Awards in 2007, and was rewarded with beauty advertising growing 45.8 percent for that issue, according to WWD.

Launch editor-in-chief Tina Johnson left Women's Health abruptly in August 2008, after which Zinczenko took over. Like Men's Health before it, Women's Health joined the celebrity cover game, starting with Elizabeth Banks. When Promaulayko was hired away from her longtime gig at Cosmo it was with the specific mission of beefing up fashion and beauty. She brought in top editors from the Cosmo family. Out: the tomboyish verve. In: eating licorice wrapped around your partner's penis (actual June 2009 sex tip), page after page of beauty product placements (including a 25-page beauty package in the April 2009 issue), and Ashlee Simpson on the December 2009 cover, on how she - you guessed it - lost the baby weight.

So far, by conventional standards, her strategy has worked: The magazine was AdAge's Magazine of the Year, Its advertising numbers are less crappy than everyone else's. It has several books planned. The circulation is climbing to 1.5 million, close to beating its more established brother, so apparently there are still plenty of people who want to read it.

Just not the readers who turned to it for a fresh take — some of them complaining about the dumbing down of the content on the magazine's own site. Count me among them.

Women's Health [Official Site]

Related: Rodale Taps Editor For Women's Health [WWD]
Women's Health: Magazine Of The Year [AdAge]

• Holy underminer, Batman! Whitney Port on her clothing line: "I'm developing a clothing line. It won't be like Lauren's stuff, which I loved. Mine will be a little more high-end." [Radar]
• "Fashion Victims: The Catty Catalogue of Stylish Casualties From A to Z" by Michael Roberts, fashion director of Vanity Fair, sounds like it will be fascinating to the fashionistas he skewers and completely stultifying to everyone else. "Roberts has written a poem for each letter of the alphabet, for instance P for "photographer": "Why am I so fabulous? What makes me truly great? What would life be without me? It's hard to contemplate . . . No billboards straddling city streets with body parts gigantic/Nor me with glass in premiere class crisscrossing the Atlantic." The accompanying illustration is a caricature of Mario Testino. " Sounds like a gas. [NY Post]
• Early estimates place the price of Cindy McCain's RNC outfit at $300,000. Well, in fairness $280,000 goes towards her three-karat diamond earrings. [US News]

• We love how thoughtfully celebrities consider the challenges of starting a small business! Jamie-Lynn Sigler on her new jewelry line: “We just started beading these gold bracelets with all different types of gold one day and started playing with different charms, and we thought, Hey, let’s do it,” [NY Mag]
• Word on the street is that Cole Mahr, the dude who wore a dress in the Marc Jacobs print ads, will be doing it again on the runway. Does this bode well for Isis?! [Fashionista]
• Lancome adds Dominican model Arlenis Sosa to its "stable." Says Lancome's prez, “Arlenis possesses beauty, intelligence, charm and compassion...All of our brand ambassadors share these attributes, so we knew she would be a wonderful addition. We are very proud to welcome her to the Lancôme family.” [WWD]
• You'll be relieved to know that Fashion Week is civic-minded. A fashion week press release tells us, "In the spirit of the election season and theme at this year’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, unique, fashion inspired election slogan pins will be given out in small quantities each day. Fashionistas can vote for their favorite slogan at www.votembfashionweek.com."
• "Furrier to the stars" Dennis Basso owes the IRS. "The baritone-voiced minkmeister is singing the blues now that the feds have imposed a $200,000 lien on his swanky Central Park West apartment, according to public records." Basso says it's all a misunderstanding because his "accountant's mother had a heart attack." [NY Post]
• ANTM judge and "top fashion photographer" Nigel Barker and his wife are having a baby girl. "We found out it’s going to be a little girl," Barker, 36, told Us Thursday at the Saks Fifth Avenue Ruby Slippers Collection party in NYC. "We’re going to look at her, and when we see her, we’re going to come up with a name." They already have a 2-year-old son. [US Weekly]
• Men's Heath EIC and titanic douche David Zinczenko is psyched about the new Women's Health. Quoth he, "We've pulled into the passing lane, and we're poised to surpass a lot of women's magazines now. We can see Glamour just up ahead. There are a lot of opportunities for Women's Health because of the size of the market." [WWD]
• We wouldn't normally think much of the fact that AOL is relaunching its style and beauty site, StyleList.com, except that they've tapped Carmindy as their beauty expert, and we love What Not to Wear. [WWD]
• A Saks Fifth Avenue employee has been charged with $680K in theft. [NY Post]
• Wait, has Rachel Bilson been on any worst-dressed lists? “I think it’s cool to be on the worst-dressed list,” she says. “If people aren’t accepting, that’s OK. Bring it on, I don’t care!” [People]
• Fern Mallis basically runs Fashion Week. Here's why she's psyched: "First of all, September shows always feel like school is starting. This particular season there's different kind of buzz in the air, especially with the elections. We are all wondering how the outcome will affect our industry, especially with two first ladies who wear clothes particularly well." [Huffington Post]
• Behold fall's least flattering fashion trend: the pegged trouser. "They usually have two front pleats at the waistband that are designed to add volume in the hip area, then balloon out in the thigh before tapering in again at the ankle. They can also be cropped on the ankle and high-waisted. Admittedly, they sound alarm bells for most of us - extra volume around the thighs is always a hard sell." Thanks a lot, YSL! [The Guardian]
• Speaking of the 90s: LA Gear is back, baby! In what The Cut describes as the requisite "in Saved by the Bell shapes and neon colors." [The Cut]
• Italian designer Mila Schon has died at 92. [Reuters]
• Kate Betts, Joel Stein and Isaac Mizrahi will all be blogging fashion week for Style & Design. Says Betts, "I wanted to offer readers the same kind of inside, up-to-the-minute, offbeat look at fashion week as opposed to straightforward reviews...Joel and Isaac, I hope, will add a lot of humor." [WWD]
• Model Lily Cole is leaving modeling to pursue acting, was inspired by Heath Ledger. But more to the point, she's starting Cambridge, where she'll be studying history! Says the 20-year-old, "modelling can get a little lonely sometimes, especially when you are travelling on your own. That's what I'm looking forward to about going to university to meet lots of new people." [Telegraph]
• Not profiting by Lily Cole's example, former internet phenom/partygirl and wannabe-Lezark Cory Kennedy has been signed to One Model Management. [Fashionista]
• Domino really understands the needs of its readers; they've done the important work of making a "fashion week survival guide." "The survival guide includes recommendations from designers, editors and fashion insiders, including Francisco Costa, Bloomingdale's fashion director Stephanie Solomon, Simon Doonan, Anya Hindmarch, Vera Wang, Lela Rose and Peter Som. Musings include recommendations on what to do for an hour in between shows — Humberto Leon, from Opening Ceremony, suggested Wu Lim Qi Gong Master Massage." [WWD]
• Raise your hand if you want the new KISS Vans! Wait...no one? "To celebrate that fateful day in 1978 when all four members of the band released solo albums, the skatewear brand (and main sponsor of the Warped Tour) is releasing the Vans x Kiss Sk8-Hi commemorative T-shirt and shoe pack sometime in the "late fall" of this year." [AdAge]
• As previously reported, designer Heather Thomson has tapped New York's pool of exotic dancing talent for her upcoming lingerie show. "She held a competition of dancers who perform gymnastics-like routines on brass poles at some of Manhattan's poshest strip clubs and picked eight to model her Yummie Tummie Shapewear." [Reuters]
• The Rag&Bone designers are refreshingly enthusiastic! "We are big fans of Radiohead. Actually, seeing them perform at Glastonbury head-to-toe in Rag & Bone would be pretty magic." [Fashion Week Daily]
• In addition to a ludicrous rock-themed fashion mag and a fashion-themed rock concert, Fashion Rocks sponsors a charity auction. "Among the items up for auction: A leather jacket autographed by Keith Urban and seats at Kimora Lee Simmons and Diane Von Furstenberg's coveted runway shows." [People]
• We love Daphne Guinness largely because of her connection to the Mitfords, but on any terms her upcoming shoot for Vogue Italia sounds rad! [Fashionista]

Men's Health editor David Zinczenko is somehow famous, ostensibly for editing a crap magazine that is not only arguably the crappiest magazine of all the major men's magazines, it may be crappier than certain women's magazines. (Yup, that backhanded compliment is ALL YOURS, B-Holley!) Anyway so Zinczenko's claim to fame is editing the Cosmo of middle aged men, and having that name. Oh yes, and he wrote a book, The Abs Diet, lest you thought you could arrive at one of the six-packs featured on the cover of Men's Health simply by reading Zinczenko's magazine. Because customers are so supremely savvy and smart and the market always knows best, men snapped up copies of The Abs Diet like we women would snap up Envigo negative calorie soda if it tasted less like a combination of uric acid and Sparks and more like Girl Scout cookies. Well wait with bated breath no longer; today WWD reports Zinczenko's ghostwriter has upchucked a new Abs Diet for us!

"We refurbished more bodies than the guys on 'Pimp My Ride,'" he wrote in an e-mail. "Now women can cruise the town in low riders, too."

But that's not even the most douchebaggian quote! Check this:

"Though you may associate hot flashes with getting a glimpse of Usher's abs, they're more common in menopausal women for another reason.

Like, not only does the guy believe in the power of diet books to "refurbish bodies," he is incapable of expressing more than one thought without reverting back to the subject of "abs".

OMG, I think I just encountered the Antichrist.

Midsection Obsession [WWD]