Magazine veteran, marketing expert who helped start Seventeen dies in NYC at 92

NEW YORK, N.Y. – A pioneering marketing executive who helped start Seventeen magazine in 1944 has died at age 92.

Estelle Ellis Rubinstein died July 1 at her home in Manhattan after battling lung cancer. Her son, Ellis Rubinstein, has confirmed her death.

After working for Popular Science and other magazines, Rubinstein helped Seventeen’s founding editor-in-chief, Helen Valentine, to publish the magazine.

The two later launched Charm, a magazine that positioned working women as a separate market segment. Charm was incorporated into Glamour magazine.

Rubinstein conducted early market research studies that established working women and teenage girls as distinct markets. She and her husband, Sam, later started a creative marketing firm called Business Image.

In addition to her son, Rubinstein is survived by her daughter, Nora Rubinstein, two grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.