The switch at the top comes at a time when serious questions are being asked about the print medium's effectiveness in reaching teenagers, and the ABCs make the division between lifestyle and pop magazines all the more stark.
Emap shut Smash Hits! down as a magazine last month and its final ABC, down 23.3% to 92,398, seems to justify the decision. The move leaves BBC's Top of the Pops as the teen pop leader, selling over 30,000 more copies than TV Hits.
ToTP's ABC was down 31.1% to 96,576 after switching to a fortnightly frequency during the period. The impact of reverting back to a monthly again, as well as operating without Smash Hits! as a rival, will not be seen until the next ABC in August.
Sales were down across the teen entertainment sector, which slumped 37.2% as the target audience apparently seeks its entertainment online, on TV, or via mobiles.
Dawn Bebe, managing director of Emap Elan, argued that this creates new opportunities for broader teen titles. "Teenage lifestyle magazines are more stable. There's a place for them because they're delivering a form of specialist information that you can't get elsewhere as a teen - TV and online don't directly compete," she says.
Sugar's circulation was down 12.3% period on period to 250,099 and Hachette is now seeking to win back readers with a smaller format and a monthly supplement, as well as online investment.
Julie Harris, head of Hachette's women's group, said: "It's always been a volatile market, but it's particularly tough now. The challenge for us all is to make sure we're reaching teenagers in different ways, because they're not living exclusively in the magazine world.
"It's a very small market and brand owners and advertisers have to reach them in different ways. So we're using any channel we can. We're investing online and we'll grow the Sugar family and hope to drive some people back to the magazine."
The two publishers will continue to jostle for position at the top of this troubled tree and each believes the other's strategy comes at a cost.
Hachette accused Emap of racking up the costs for publishers. In return, Emap suggested that Hachette is mimicking Bliss' positioning with Sugar's proposition.
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