Success of Sugar confirms sex in teenage magazines sells
Sex in teenage magazines works, according to the latest sales figures for Attic Futura’s Sugar magazine.
Sugar, the monthly which has revolutionised the middle-teens magazine market with its sealed sex supplements and explicit coverage of boyfriend problems, has increased sales by 21 per cent during its second six-month Audit Bureau of Circulations period.
Its ABC figure for the period from July to December 1995 was 318,053, up from 262,477 in the previous six months. This compares with a fall of 31 per cent, down to 185,081, for EMAP’s flagship weekly teen title Just Seventeen.
The sales figures follow discussions between Home Office ministers and publishers about the content of teen magazines. The talks were provoked by a Private Member’s Bill in the Commons calling for teen magazines to carry age ratings on their covers.
Attic Futura’s Inside Soap magazine, also aimed at teenagers has increased sales by 31.0 per cent to 154,008.
Meanwhile, TV Hits, which was pulled from the shelves of WH Smith and a chain of supermarkets in November because of its explicit problem page, fell 5.5 per cent over the year.
