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STFall 2004Tweens, Teens, and MagazinesEver since Seventeen magazine made its debut in the1940s, teen magazines have been one of the mostsuccessful genres of magazines. But in the late 1990s, theteen magazine market exploded, with scores of new titlesentering the playing field in response to the largest youthmarket since the Baby Boomers--an estimated 33 million12- to 19-year-oldswho spend upwards of 1 75 billionannually.' The sheer size of this group of 'Echo Boomers"and the competing media choices available to them havesplintered the youth audience in more ways than everbefore. Niche journals for boys interested in extreme sports,"little sister" magazines spun off from popular women'stitles, online companions to print editions, and alternative'zines-all these trends and more are reshaping the world ofteens and magazines in new ways.Teen Magazines, Past and PresentThe Henry J Mcj sr?rFdf¶'Ill Fossrddi80;i*.1,.10sand H I R @ a l*.terlo Park. CCI 4023Phar;e: 650 854-9401;F;41. E50-854-4800During the 1990s, teens constituted the fastest-growingsegment of the population, which signaled to publishers that the market could support more teen titles: thenumber of new teen magazines more than tripled from 5in 1990 to 19 in 2000.'Up until the late 1990s, Seventeen, Teen, and YM werethe top three teen magazines, with a total of 6.3 millionreaders. Then the teen magazine market became morecrowded and competitive with adult-to-teen crossoversthat shifted the balance, starting with Teen People in1998, followed by CosmoGirl!, Elle Girl, and TeenVogue. These changes ultimately forced Teen to fold,Seventeen's ad revenues to drop, and YM's circulation todecline. The fallout eventually led Seventeen and YM toreposition themselves to target older teens 17 and up.)Each of these so-called "little sister" startups has its owndistinct take: CosmoGirl! is targeted to the Cosmo reader's younger sister but without the explicit sex talk, ElleGirl is for the &-beat, street-chic girl with a multiculturalflair, and Teen Vogue is aimed at the fashion-consciousadolescent female.4By 2004, analysts warned that the teen market had e a k e dAccording. to the group that tracks magazinecirculations, the Audit Bureau of Circulation, in 2003 theteen market reported circulation losses from the previousyear with one notable exception-CosmoGirl! whosecirculation was up 18.5 percenL6Launched in 1944, Seventeen is the oldest and remainsthe most popular teen magazine in circulation today.Striving to maintain its dominance in the field, in 2003Seventeen launched a return to Middle America valueswith a wholesome (as opposed to sophisticated) fashionstatement.'The Kaiser Family Foundation is a non.profit, private operating foundation dedicated to providin informationand analysis on health care issues to policymakers,the media, the health care community, and t f e general public.The Foundation is not associated with Kaiser Permanente or Kaiser Industr es.Some teen magazines focus primarily on celebrities andthe entertainment industry. Twist, J-14, and Mall attractyoung tween and teen girls interested in music, entertainment, celebrity gossip, and pull-out poster . The oldestteen fan magazine is Tiger Beat, launched in 1965. In1972, Right On!started up to spotlight the latest newsand information about Blacks in the entertainment business and was later joined by Word Up! and Black Beat,which focus on the urban music scene?Alternatives to the tradit onalcelebrity or beauty and fashion-driven magazines have also emerged for teens. Girls'Life, or GL, winner of the Parents Choice Award, provides girls ages 10 to 15 a balance of information aboutbeauty, fashion, and celebrities with advice about friends,family, boys, school, self-esteem, and profiles of real girlsfacing challenge .' Smaller alternative magazines thatfocus more on self-development and social issues havefound a niche as well among teen girls. Teen Voices, aquarterly nonprofit magazine launched in 1990, has anational readership of 75,000 and a companion Website, Teen Voices Online. Created to reach 'high-risk"inner-city girls on issues such as nontraditional careerchoices, teen pregnancy, and sexual assault, almostall the magazine's editors are minority girls and youngwomen who live below the poverty line. New Moon,started in 1992 with a current circulation of 30,000, hasa focus on self-developmentfor girls 8 to 14 years old."While there are more ethnic-oriented magazines thanever before, the majority are aimed at young adults ratherthan teens. Some teen launches have been short lived,such as Latin Girl, which at its startup in early 1999 wastouted as the first and only national magazine created toaddress the needs of Hispanic female teens who wantto maintain their bicultural identity.!' Others are smallerpublications with a mission such as Blackgirl Magazine,which started as a bimonthly publication in 2002 by a 13year-old girl with the goal to empower African Americanteens by 'promoting positive messages and imagery.""SuperOnda, a magazine that partners with severaluniversities, is targeted to the 18-year-oldHispanic highachiever, with a focus on education and career, as wellas entertainment, news, and politics."The Scholastic Teen Magazine Network reaches thehighest number of 12- to 17-year-olds,through its outletsNew York Times Upfront, Scholastic Action, ScholasticScope, Scholastic Choices, Junior Scholastic, ScienceWorld, and Literary Cavalcade. Taken together, themagazines have an estimated circulation of 11.2 million.15T H E HENRY J. K A I S E R FAMILY F O U N D A T I O N&fL4&fl& -4 LJ k1. I ? . '2 f7

11 Bonny Norton, 'When Is a Teen Magazine Not a TeenMagazine?" Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 45, no.4 (December 20011January 2002), html (accessed June 14, 2001);Jeff Lemberg, 'Two Magazines Deliver Teen Voices asThey Really Are," Women's eNews, 5 April 2002, http:Ilwww.womensenews.orglarticle.cfm?aid 868 (accessedJune 14,2004).12 ushe's Hip, She's Smart, She's Unique, She's . 'LatinGirl,'" 23 October 1998, 3lgirl.htm (accessed June 14, 2004).Latin Girl was listed as defunct in Magazine Publishersof America, "Fact Sheet Industry News and Resources:Defunct and Suspended Magazines, January-December2001 ," http:l/www.magazine.orglfinanceand operations/finance operationsfrends and magazine handbookl1488.cfm (accessed June 14,2004).13 Blackgirl Magazine, http://www.blackgirlmagazine.com(accessed June 14, 2004).i4SuperOnda Media Kit, s/mediakit.asp?mediakitid l8&divisionid 2 (accessed June 15,2004).l5Scholastic Teen Magazine Network, htm (accessedJune 14, 2004).l6Mark Harvey, 'Magazines: Let's Hear It for the Boys,"American Demographics 20, no. 8 (August 2000): 30.l7E-mail correspondence and telephone interview withSam Belil, Director of Research, Dennis Publishing, 14June 2004. Based on 2004 MRI data, 18- to 20-year-oldaudience composition for Mavim is 2,254,000 and for Stuffis 983,000.18 Harvey.l9Magazine Publishers Association, "Fact Sheet IndustryNews and Resources: Defunct or Suspended Magazines,January-December 200120 Sports Illustrated for Kids Media Kit, http:llwww.sikids.com/magmediakit/facts. html (accessed June 15,2004).2lJeff Gremillion, "Where the Boys Are," Brandweek 40,no. 5 (1 February 1999): 36.22 BOYS'Life Media Kit, http:llwww.boyslife.orglabout/adsleditions.html (accessed June 14, 2004).23 Magazine Publishers of America, "Fact Sheet: Circulationfor ABC Magazines, 2003."24 'Teen Targets: A Look at Where Advertisers AreReaching Teens, on Television and in Magazines," AdweekMagazines Special Repori 44, no. 42 (27 October 2003):28.25 Larry Dobrow, 'Simmons Measures Teen Readers,"MediaPost's Media Daily News, 18 June 2003.26 Donald Roberts and Ulla Foehr, Kids & Media in America(NY Cambridge University Press, 2004).27 SmartGirl and Young Adult Library Services (a divisionof the American Library Association), Survey Archchives.Teen Read Week out/archives.html (accessed May14, 2004).SmartGirl and Young Adult Library Services, Teen ReadWeek wltrw2001 .html (accessed May 14, 2004).29 Nancy Signorelli, 'A Content Analysis: Reflections of Girlsin the Media," The Kaiser Family Foundation and ChildrenNow, April 1997.30 Ibid.31 David Carr, 'On Covers of Many Magazines, a Full RacialPalette Is Still Rare," The New York Times, 18 November2002, C1.32 Magazine Publishers of America, Market Profile:Teenagers! (NY Magazine Publishers of America, 2000),http://www.magazine.org (accessed June 4, 2004)."Key Facts: Tweens, Teens, and MagazinesResearch & Consulting Group, Taylor KidsPulse: Where the Wired Things Are, as cited in Teen MediaMonitor: Teen Girls, The Kaiser Family Foundation 2, no. 1(October 2003).34 Lisa Duke and Peggy Kreshel, 'Negotiating Femininity:Girls in Early Adolescence Read Teen Magazines," Journalof Communication Inquiry 22, no. 1 (1998): 48-72.35 Lisa Duke, 'Get Reall Cultural Relevance and Resistanceto Mediated Feminine Ideal," Psychology & Marketing 19,no. 2 (February 2002): 21 1-233.36 Jeremy Lee, 'Teen Magazines," Campaign, 20 February2004.37 Harris Interactive and Teenage Research Unlimited,Born to be Wired: The Role of New Media for a DigitalGeneration. A New Media Landscaoe Comes of Age.- .Executive Summary, http:llus.il .yim .comlus.yimg.comlilpromo/btbw 2003lbtbw execsum.pdf(accessed May 14,2004).38 Aimee Deeken, "Teens Tell AI1,"Adweek 44, no. 46 (24November 2003): IQ6.Magazine Publishers of America, Market Profile:Teenagers!40 Deeken.41 Greg Lindsay, 'Ask Not What Your Teen MagazineCan Do for You, But.,"Folio 30,no. 15 (1 December2001):14; Elizabeth Canning Blackwell, 'What Do TeensReally Want," North Shore Magazine, as cited in TeenageResearch Unlimited, http:l/www.teenresearch.comlNewsView.cfm?edit-id 60 (accessed June 6, 2004).42 David Handelman, 'Fresh Faces: Teen MagazinesChange with the Times," Brandweek 42, no. 39 (22October 2001): SR8.43 Lindsay.44 Paul Colford, 'Column," New York Daily News, 20February 2004.45 David Carr, "MTV Gives Magazine a Remix," The NewYork Times, 20 October 2003.46 Guideposts for Teens, http:l/www.gp4t.com (accessedJune 14, 2004).47 Brio, http://www.Briomag.com (accessed June 14,2004).48 Breakaway, http:llwww.family.org/teenguys/breakmag(accessed June 14, 2004).49 Feed, http:llwww.feedstop.com (accessed June 14,2004).50 'New Teen Magazine Lets God Be Stylist," 24 July 2003,http://magazines.press-world.comlvl852.html (accessedJune 14, 2004).51 Blue Jeans Online, http:l/www.bluejeanonline.com(accessed June 14,2004).52 'Bilingual Latina Girls Magazine Celebrates 1-YearAnniversary with Launch of Teen Version," FindLaw:Legal News and Commentary, 26 March 2004, http:llwww.findlaw.com (accessed June 14, 2004).33 The TaylorAdditional copies of this publication (#7152) areavailable on the Kaiser Family Foundation's website atwww.kff.org.Fa11 2004Page 4