ABCs - Teenage and Children's - Teen titles see tough trading

by Danuta Kean, Media Week 21-Aug-07

Tough trading in the teen magazine market was reflected in disappointing circulation figures across teenage lifestyle and teenage entertainment titles. Both were down year on year by 18.6% and 16% respectively.

Only Panini's Mizz and Scooby-Doo! comic and DC Thomson's Shout emerged
unscathed from a meltdown in the market that led to NatMags withdrawing
from the market completely and left Panini reeling after newly acquired

Bliss suffered a year-on-year 43.5% drop in circulation.

By contrast, Mizz enjoyed a 2.7% increase, while Shout remained fairly
static at 1.2% year on year.

Panini, which bought Bliss from Emap at the end of last year, put its
severe sales decline down to a three-month period without covermounts when
it first acquired the title. The publisher might have hoped the
acquisition would hand it the top two spots in the troubled sector.

NatMags' two departures, CosmoGirl! and online magazine Jellyfish, were
joined by another closure in the BBC Magazines stable, which terminated
It's Hot this month after a series of disappointing sales figures.

Duncan Grey, associate publisher teen titles at BBC Worldwide, said:
"There's a limit to how much space is out there for these titles and in
teenage entertainment there is only room for one."

He claimed BBC's Top of the Pops would win out. "What we have managed to
do with Top of the Pops is halt the decline," he said. "The last issue was
the biggest selling in the last two years."

The sector has struggled to find space in the lives of teenagers bombarded
with rival media platforms. The titles are also being forced to compete
for readers with celebrity magazines such as Heat, which are extending
their reach to an increasingly young audience.

Even market leader Sugar, published by Hachette, struggled to maintain
sales. Both its year-on-year and period-on-period figures were down by
more than 6%.