Feature: Pleasing The Teens

Two new names have just arrived on the teen ‘zine scene, but anyone with fond memories of Jackie and My Guy should forget about photo stories. The younger sisters of successful glossies, Elle Girl and CosmoGirl are streetwise,celebrity-savvy bibles of consumer culture.

The new kids enter a sector that is looking less than full of youthful vigour. The last four sets of ABC results have seen drop after drop, with January-June this year seeing a drastic 11.9% year on year fall.

Until the new launches last month, the market was dominated by titles established 6-8 years ago, including market leader, Attic Futura’s Sugar, which launched in 1994 and now shifts over 350,000 copies per issue. Sugar’s nearest contenders are 6 year olds Bliss and Top of the Pops, which both top the 250,000 mark. Since these titles launched, Mollins’ Jump has come and gone, leaving BBC Worldwide’s junior version celebrity magazine Star, which launched last year and gained an opening circulation of 130,000, as the only new blood.

Of the older titles, the oldest, 23 year old Smash Hits manages the highest circulation, albeit less than half of the 434,500 it managed in 1997. Emap’s 18 year old J17, which has had a rocky ride, to say nothing of a name-modification, since its 1988 heyday of circulations above 300,000, currently resides just below the 200,000 mark, while 16 year old Mizz has not risen much above the 160,000 mark for over 5 years.

CosmoGirl launched with an initial print run of 600,000 but Natmags remains tight-lipped about the target circulation. Elle Girl’s chances have been downgraded in the industry’s opinion by the fact that it’s a quarterly. Despite the ailing market, research suggests that teenagers have more disposable income than ever before. With both the mini-glossies intent on encouraging readers to hit the high street, perhaps they will succeed in persuading them to shell out at the news-stand first.

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