The popular fashion and beauty magazine will have at least 250 pages per issue and "a print run of 100,000 to build up to 120,000 in the medium term," said Siri Udomritthiruj, general manager of Hachette Filipacchi Post (HFP), which is jointly launching the magazine with France's Groupe Marie Claire.
Aimed at "financially independent, well-rounded and well-educated" women aged between 20 and 35 years old, the new edition will have a local to international ratio of 70:30, and an editorial to advertising ratio of 60:40, Siri said.
"The response (from media houses) has been very positive since Marie Claire is a household name in many countries around the world and is already widely known here in Thailand," she said.
Advertisers have also shown greater interest in international titles in recent years, she notes.
The main reasons include a consistent and modern outlook on both editorial and advertising fronts, and growing interest from Thai readers in global trends and happenings.
According to Nielsen Media Research, adspend in magazines grew 16.6 per cent last year to 3.6 billion baht (about US$93 million). Industry watchers expect this figure to be at least matched and probably exceeded this year.
Local and international titles now total 648, of which 60 per cent are targeted at women.
Marie Claire is the third foreign women's title - after UK's Hair magazine and Singapore's Her World - to announce definite launch plans so far this year, with several others waiting in the wings.
Elle, also from HFP, is currently the top circulating foreign women's monthly, putting out 230,000 copies per month. Besides Elle and Marie Claire, HFP also publishes Elle Decoration and Cleo.
"This is our fourth title and yes, we can expect more in the future," Siri said. Industry watchers expect one of the first to be Elle Girl.
The Thai edition of Marie Claire brings the total number of international editions of the French magazine to 25, eight of which are in Asia-Pacific.