Just Seventeen reduced to monthly
EMAP has reduced Just Seventeen, its flagship teenage girl’s magazine, from weekly to monthly frequency after its latest sales figures.
The switch, to be accompan ied by a price rise, will take place in April.
The announcement comes just ahead of the publication of the title’s new circulation figures at the end of this week.
The magazine fell by 34 per cent year on year in the 1996 January to June Audit Bureau of Circulations figures to 162,490. In the previous six-month period, it also fell 31 per cent. As recently as 1994, Just Seventeen was selling 260,000 copies a week.
“We have done three research studies on the magazine and found that teenagers are more aspirational now,” says Louise Matthews, the magazine’s publishing director. “What teenagers want is gloss and glamour. They still want the brand values of Just Seventeen, but not its present format.”
The source of the title’s troubles has been new competition in the form of EMAP’s It’s Bliss and Attic Futura’s Sugar magazines. Both monthly magazine’s launched in the past two years, and have quickly eaten into the established teen titles. EMAP’s fortnightly Smash Hits has also suffered from serious slumps.
The new breed of teen titles have increased sex-based editorial and higher quality production values, similar to women’s monthly glossies.
EMAP spent 400,000 on above- the-line advertising supporting Just Seventeen last year . An advertising campaign is expected to support the relaunch.
