By Alyson Fixter
CosmoGIRL!
, little sister to Cosmopolitan magazine, is to go tri-weekly in a
publishing first which managers say is in response to the demands of
their teen readers.
The NatMags title, currently the third biggest seller in the teen
market, with an ABC of just over 200,000, will appear every third
Thursday from mid- March.
Rival teen mags have indicated they
would not be likely to follow in the mag’s footsteps, while Emap, which
publishes closest rival Bliss, said it was “already in tune with
customer’s demands” and had no need to increase frequency.
Related
Chiefs
at the Cosmopolitan Group hope the move will increase circulation which
is of particular importance to teen mags as they take less advertising
than their adult counterparts.
Celia Duncan, editor of Cosmo- GIRL! , said: “We have always been about listening to our readers.
“They
can email me direct and always get a reply. A lot of the emails have
been saying ‘I just can’t wait a whole month till the next copy’ and
this is the perfect answer to that without compromising quality.
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“It also means we will be able to respond to news quicker.”
She said the mag was recruiting extra staff on all sides to help with the increased workload.
Emap and Hachette, which publishes market leader Sugar , said they had no plans to copy the move.
Rimi
Atwal, publisher of Emap’s teen titles, said the company had a weekly
teen mag, Sneak , a fortnightly title in the form of Smash Hits and a
monthly in Bliss, and therefore had all bases covered.
She added:
” CosmoGIRL! is clearly looking to capitalise on the characteristics of
the fast-paced teen market by increasing its frequency. Emap’s teen
portfolio is already in tune with the consumer’s demands, and this is
likely to get other publishers asking questions of their own portfolios.
“Teens
are sophisticated consumers and they can easily work out what is good
value for money. You have to have a good editorial proposition to back
up your product and no amount of tweaking a model will create consumer
demand otherwise.”
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