The print-magazine and events business are part of a broader shift in how women’s publications position themselves. With news-media profits shrinking, publications want to be a “cross-platform brand, a place that people will come to even if the print publication no longer exists,” Duffy said. Rachael Ray, for instance, has her own line of products, and Cosmopolitan hosts events (as does The Atlantic). Goop has its own online shop, complete with pictures of Paltrow sporting whimsical tops.

For a media company, Goop already seems to be doing relatively well. Revenue reportedly tripled between 2015 and 2016. That year, Paltrow announced she had raised $10 million from venture capitalists.

The site may be benefiting from a growing interest, at least among wealthy Americans, in all things healthy-ish. Organic food sales have grown, well, healthily over the past decade; even Gatorade now comes in an organic variety. Nearly 10 percent of Americans do yoga, and 8 percent meditate. People are skipping soda for “mindful” beverages like coconut water. Americans now spend about a third as much out-of-pocket on “complementary” practitioners as they do on regular doctors.

Millennials, in particular, are more likely than older Americans to say “health” means more than just not being sick. Goop gives many of these SoulCycling, chia-chomping young people a place to ramp their zen to the next level.

One health reporter and editor who has worked at various women’s magazines suggested that Goop’s fun approach to wellness might be more appealing to readers and advertisers than more serious health fare, such as how to prevent diabetes or avoid the flu. Goop “already has a readership built in,” she said. Plus, “Gwyneth Paltrow is an interesting figure and really beautiful ... She is living proof of Goop-y health.” (She asked to be kept anonymous because she was not authorized to speak to reporters and was worried about jeopardizing her professional relationships.)

However, the odds for print health magazines are steep these days. Condé Nast recently closed Self magazine in print, and last month American Media ended the print version of Men’s Fitness. (The print version of Fitness died in 2015, 23 years after it was born.) Women’s-health magazines are “chasing an older and smaller pool of women,” said Mike Lafavore, the long-serving former editor in chief of Men’s Health, who also served in top editorial roles at Meredith Publishing and Rodale. “Is Gwyneth Paltrow going to appeal to that group? Or will millennials flock to a magazine about Gwyneth Paltrow? I don’t know. All you have to do is ride the subway and count the number of people who are holding a piece of paper.”

“Anyone launching a print magazine in this environment,” he added, “God bless ’em.”

It’s even tougher in the health space, he points out, since WebMD and similar sites attempt to answer people's health questions for free. And unlike Dr. Oz—who has his own magazine and controversy—Paltrow doesn’t possess medical credentials.