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

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%.

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