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MAPS : Teenage Magazines: May 2005

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The teenage magazine market is facing problems on a number of fronts and is having to work hard in order to maintain the loyalty of its increasingly sophisticated teenage readership. The sector faces competition from a number of sources, including non-teenage titles, such as women's lifestyle `glossies' and celebrity magazines; other claims on teenagers' pocket money, such as clothes, mobile telephones and entertainment; and other claims on their leisure time, such as television and the Internet. In addition, the consumer base is shrinking, both in absolute terms (the teenage population is falling) and in terms of the age range that reads teenage magazines.

The market — like many other markets aimed at consumers in this age group — is one in which it is notoriously difficult to succeed. Teenagers tend to

be more fickle in their loyalties than older consumers are, and will switch from one magazine brand to another on the basis of what is in a particular issue and/or on promotions, such as cover-mounted gifts.

Both the fashion and lifestyle, and pop and entertainment sectors have seen falling sales, and decreasing market size, over the past 5 years.

The teenage fashion and lifestyle sector has experienced a number of magazine closures since 2000, including two long-established titles —

Emap's J17 and IPC's 19 — which both closed in 2004. The most recent surviving magazine launches — ELLEgirl and COSMOGirl, both launched in 2001 — were both spin-offs from women's `glossies'. Traditionally, the pop music and entertainment sector has been highly dependent on the pop music industry and particularly on the extent to which celebrities with `teen appeal' are in the ascendant. As in the fashion and lifestyle sector, there are parallels with the adult market; two teenage celebrity magazines — Sneak and It's Hot — were launched in 2002 to build on the popularity of adult magazines, such as Heat and OK!. There have also been closures in this sector, including the long-established Live & Kicking magazine, and the more ephemeral Star, which closed in 2001 just a year after its launch.

Key Note's exclusive consumer research found that a high proportion of adults acknowledge that magazines can have a strong influence on both the way teenagers behave and on the things they believe. Almost twice as many respondents said that teenage magazines should not contain explicit articles about sex, as those that thought it was a good idea to include such articles. However, around one in four agreed that teenage magazines are informative in that they encourage teenagers to think more carefully about social issues; around one in five said that they generally portray issues, such as teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and bullying in a responsible way. A similar proportion agreed that there should be more of this sort of coverage in teenage magazines.

Demographic trends are not in favour of teenage magazines, with a 4.2% decrease forecast in the female population aged 10 to 16 between 2005 and 2009. The market is forecast to continue to fall during this period, prompted by the population decrease and by changing lifestyles and leisure habits among teenagers.

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Text © 2005 Key Note

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Last updated by Amanda Porteous 2005