LONDON (Reuters) - Hard-up students are being recruited to test condoms, rating them for their pleasure, comfort and performance qualities.

The 100-150 successful job applicants will be paid 100 pounds per academic term as they road-test a range of condoms from German manufacturer Condomi.

"The condom testers will be asked to give a pleasure rating. They will not be asked to test quality -- that has already been done," Condomi's marketing manager in Britain Victoria Wells told Reuters on Thursday.

"Test results will be fed back to our research and development department, and we hope that the students who participate will both enjoy the testing and the money, and give us a frank response which we can use for product development," Wells said.

She said adverts had been placed in a number of student publications and will run on several student radio stations from October 25.

Among the voluntary questions asked of candidates will be: how many partners they have had, how often they have sex and how long its lasts -- with the option to tick various boxes marked from "under one minute" to one marked "1.5-two hours".

Would-be testers will be asked to fill in an application available online at Condomi's corporate site.

From The NY Post

In Touch, which some see as an American version of the British title Heat, hits newsstands nationwide on Monday.

"Heat has been such a huge success in England it would be stupid to ignore it, but In Touch is a different magazine in a different market," insisted In Touch executive editor Steven LeGrice.

In fact, its day-glo logo and Jennifer Aniston cover give the magazine a look that is very reminiscent of the changes that Us Weekly received after editor-in-chief Bonnie Fuller arrived in March.

Said Fuller, who just snagged editor-of-the-year honors from Advertising Age, "I'm always of the mindset that competition is good for everybody."

Time will tell if the celebrity-heavy new weekly - which also will be adding beauty, health and home coverage - hurts single-copy sales for existing titles from People to the National Enquirer.

In Touch will only be on newsstands - but with 1.5 million copies distributed nationally, the new magazine qualifies as one of the most aggressive publishing launches of the year.

Its backer, German media giant Bauer, has a low profile in the United States, but it has a proven knack for reaching women in middle America with titles such as First for Women and Woman's World, and teen title Twist has done well with the younger set.

The company said it generates about $230 million in single-copy revenue per year.

A few newsstands in the Midwest will get to see the title starting tomorrow, as will major transportation hubs like New York's Grand Central Station and Penn Station.

LeGrice thinks that the magazine will be able to expand the national weekly market, which has seen sales erode by more than 2 million copies a week since 1995.

In Touch has had its series of early bumps. Art director Joe Cavalieri, who quit a junior art director position at People to join In Touch, left after only a week, claiming he did not think the publication would be high-quality enough for him.

"He was here so briefly, I never even knew his name," LeGrice cracks. "I'm sure he's painting the Sistine Chapel by now."

Next week, former Heat staffer Dan Wakeford joins as In Touch news editor.