By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK, Apr 13 (Reuters) Joseph Guerriero used to work long hours and worry about balancing life and work. Now he works long hours and worries about publishing a magazine about balancing life and work.

So potent is the topic of balance in contemporary life and work that a magazine calling itself the first devoted to the issue is being launched. Success is set to arrive in subscriber mailboxes in late May and on newsstands in early June.

''People are struggling with this,'' said Guerriero, its publisher. He cited a study showing 70 percent of professionals do not feel they have a healthy balance between their personal and work lives.

''What we want to do with Success is to provide people with tools, tactics and tips to better balance their work-life issues,'' he said. ''How do you make time for everything? How do you achieve both financial success and personal success? I think that's something we all want to learn how to do better.'' The magazine plans to run individual success stories and combine features normally found in more traditional business magazines with topics such as health, fitness and family.

The magazine is backed by a group of private investors, Quantum Media Venture Fund, which purchased the magazine's name. A title dating back some 115 years, Success in its last incarnation was a business magazine, owned by Lang Communications, that ceased publishing in 2001.

One of more than 100 magazines to start publishing this year, Success is betting the time is right to tap into reader interest in balancing personal and professional lives.

''I honestly think it has a bit to do with post-9/11, and everyone thinking, 'Gosh I could be gone in any minute,''' said editor Gay Bryant, formerly of Mirabella magazine.

''I also think there's a clear perception that the cradle-to-grave commitment from the corporation that you work for is no longer there. You're on your own, and you've got to make your own life,'' she said.

Most start-up magazines die early deaths, so the odds are stacked against Success, said Samir Husni, a magazine expert and professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi.

''It's everybody's dream, success. The concept is great,'' he said. ''Now, how much steam can it have in this day where almost every magazine is preaching a message of success? ''How well they are going to relate with the audience is to be seen after the issue is out,'' he said.

According to Husni's estimates, only 38 percent of magazines launched last year will survive through this year, down from a rate of about 50 percent five years ago.

Last year saw the launch of 1,013 magazines, he said.

Hoping to make this one work is Guerriero, 47, who is adding a bit of first-hand experience from a broken marriage to his views on balancing life and work.

''What I learned is I could be making money, but I wasn't really happy all the time,'' he said. ''Now if my family needs me for something ... I'm there, and I can't say that was always the way it was. I'm sort of coming through the other side.

''I may still be working long hard hours, but I'm paying a lot more attention to it,'' he said.

REUTERS MIR BS0921