By Sarah Lagan
With pre-teen titles Mizz and Shout posting the only declines in the
teen lifestyle sector, many in the business believe girls are growing
up much faster.
Mizz has dipped to 70,320, a 30 per cent drop on last year, while Shout has fallen from 84,600 to 67,466 in the same period.
Celia
Duncan, editor of The National Magazine Company’s CosmoGIRL! , said the
younger titles such as Mizz and Shout were becoming less popular
because girls were maturing earlier.
She added: “I regard the younger titles as a different sector from us.
“At our readers’ age, it’s natural to want to be older and that’s why we are more sophisticated editorially.”
Bliss
editor Lisa Smosarski said: “If you speak to any 12-year-old, they will
tell you they are striving towards things like designer labels and want
to read something that reflects that.”
But Lucie Tobin, who was recently brought in to edit Mizz, predicted a positive future for the title.
She
said: “Twelve-year-olds don’t want to read about sex, they have
different outlooks. They don’t suddenly leap from 10 to 16-year-olds.
“We
have boys in Mizz but not sex and we are one of the only titles for
that age group. I’ve turned magazines around before and I’ll do it
again.”
Bliss continued to close in on the market leader of 10 years, Sugar , with an 18 per cent year-on-year increase to 285,061.
CosmoGIRL!
increased by eight per cent year-on-year to 213,311. In a major
shake-up of the market, the title is upping its frequency to tri-weekly.
Marcus
Rich, managing director of Emap Performance, which publishes Bliss,
said: “We’re all looking at growth strategies. With some markets you
can catch a wave, but this isn’t one of those markets – it relies on
the skills of the publisher.”
Hachette Filipacchi’s Elle Girl
posted the best figures in its two-and-a-halfyear history with 90,334 –
the first full-period figure since it switched to monthly last February.
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