Teenagers disinterest in the market is further illustrated by the Brooklands Group’s attempt to launch Popworld Pulp into the market in the first half of 2006. The magazine bombed and only managed to sell 9,000 copies in its two and only weekly of publication – 51,000 off the company’s launch expectations.

The teenage sector has seen a 60.9 per cent decline since 2001 to 2006, according to Mintel. But have teenagers simply fallen out of love with reading or are there too many temptations elsewhere?

When The National Magazine Company followed in the footsteps of its fellow publishers’ IPC Media, NatMags, Emap and the BBC and announced its decision to scrap CosmoGirl! in August it left Hachette Filipacchi and its Sugar as the only major publisher left in the teen sector.

NatMags' last ditch attempt to reach the teen market earlier this year through the launch of free digital magazine Jellyfish also flopped. Even after repositioning the e-zine at a slightly older 18 to 25 old market and extending its trial to 20-weeks, it was this week shelved. NatMags blamed “distribution challenges” and its failure to become a “sustainable business model” for its latest closure.

The latest ABCs for the second-half of 2006 showed an average decline of eight per cent in the teen sector, with former Emap-owned Bliss, which was bought by comic publisher Panini last year, posted a devastating 28.9 per cent drop in circulation period-on-period.

With Bliss posting another 40 per cent dive in circulation in the latest ABCs, the publisher has launched a strategic review that could lead to a dramatic overhaul of the title.

Bliss’s results have sent Hachette Filipacchi’s Sugar back to the top of the teen market. It was the only magazine to report a slight increase of 0.2 per cent to 200,541 copies.

Sugar publisher Judith Secombe (pictured right) says: “The forthcoming ABC for Sugar will demonstrate that the brand has fared better than the competition. It’s about communicating with teens on their terms and being realistic about what they want and what you are able to deliver.”

The sudden uptake in online media over the last five years now takes up a large portion of time of teenagers’ time and with the latest phenomenon in social networking, the remaining teenage publishers have a tough road ahead of them.

Secombe adds that the biggest challenge facing the teenage girls’ market is delivering a product that has the ability to engage the audience and represent value for money.

She confirms: “Teen behaviour online suggests that they are using the internet for different things. Magazines complement online activity. The only thing we are competing for is time.”

Research by Mintel indicates that teenagers are not using the internet to tap into content provided by magazines but are instead playing games, sending emails and visiting social networking sites such as Bebo, Facebook and MySpace.

Secombe is aiming to change the perception the publishers don’t understand teenage girls’ enthusiasms as Sugar gears up to launch a new digital platform at the end of August. She believes Sugar’s foray into digital will help retain and attract new advertisers that have been working with sites such as Facebook and My Space.

She is confident that Sugar will continue to retain readers by understanding them. It currently offers them interactive experiences with the opportunity to appear in the magazine and providing a new interactive portal that is “unlike any existing application”.

“By concentrating on creating on a new experience for the user we create a new opportunity for advertisers,” Secombe adds.

However, despite being strong print brands these same brands are struggling to make the same impact online.

Christina Lucas (pictured), marketing services director of IPC majority owned Marketforce, says: “Research shows it has been hard for teenzines because of the internet brands out there. Teens don’t always associate internet brands with print brands.”

For many advertisers and media buyers teen magazines are not even considered as a way to target youth.

Press buyers agree that advertisers are increasingly heading online to reach teenagers. Clifford comments: “The amount of money press buyers spend on the teen print marketing is diminishing.”

Randall adds: “Ads are now placed online and on TV. Social networking sites are massive.”

Tim Caira, head of press at media agency PHD, agrees that teenzines have in recent times struggled to understand the market.

Another problem is that the line between the teenage girls and the young women’s market is becoming increasingly hazy almost to the point of non-existence.

Glamour publishing director Simon Kippin says: “I really don’t think there is a teen market any more. Glamour has teen readers like lots of other monthly magazines do. It is true that teenagers go straight into the adult magazine market and bypass teenzines.”

ACP-NatMags chief executive officer Colin Morrison agrees: “You would have to start out by saying publishers stop magazines because they come to the conclusion that teenagers have stopped reading magazines. However, there are quite a large number of weekly magazines, particularly in the celebrity sector that attract teenagers as well as older readers.”

There has always been a trend to read up so while teenagers are continuing to read Company, Cosmopolitan and Glamour, it is the increase in weekly celebrity magazines that are luring in more teenage readers.

The launch of IPC Media’s Look magazine in July is expected to post its first ABC of around 300,000. Despite having a target reader aged 25 the magazines appears to have attracted many teen readers. The magazine offers a mix of high street fashion and celebrity and at £1.30 it doesn’t break a teenager’s piggy bank. Its frequency also offers more up to date information to keep up with the ever-changing high street fashion and celebrity gossip.

Even Kippin (pictured right) concedes, “The women’s monthly sector has also had a challenging period and been affected by the weekly celebrity market.”

Clifford explains that teenzines were initially launched as the training wheels or “mini-me” of mature titles such as Cosmopolitan and Elle. “It was fabulous and worked for a while pre the celebrity market. If teenagers are into gossipy things on fashion and celebrities they can get it on print, online and TV so before a monthly magazine can write about it, it is always old,” she says.

Research by TMT supports the trend as celebrity weeklies have increased by 98 per cent since 2001, which was prior to the decline of teenzines.

While teenagers are being drawn in by the celebrity sector, it may also be the sexual advice content in adult magazines that may also be attracting them. Since the 1990s TMAP (Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel) has been monitoring the content of teenage magazines. Its job is to act as the magazine industry's self-regulatory body to ensure that the sexual content of teenage magazines is presented in a responsible and appropriate manner.

There have been periodic outcries about the content of the teen magazines with the latest criticism coming from the Association of Teachers about the titles glamorising sexual promiscuity in 2004.

However, the industry refutes any claims that TMAP’s rulings have driven readers away and instead claim adults are purchasing them for their teenagers to raise awareness of such issues.

Lucas says: “Teen magazines are good for advice.” She claims that a high number of parents were purchasing them as they saw it as a safe form of advice.

Secombe also saw TMAP as having a positive influence on the sector. “There has been no negative impact on readers. TMAP publishing members are realistic about the responsibility we have towards teenagers and their parents on certain subjects – both from an educational and legal point of view.”

With only two teenage magazines left to battle it out press buyers are confident that for now there is still a large enough market.

But as more and more importance is placed online and the digital sector continues to prove to be a difficult market to tackle for print brands, only time will tell whether Sugar will be the exception, or whether it too will eventually fall victim to market forces.

Click here to download our PDF containing the top-line results across key sectors making analysis of the implications for the UK’s consumer magazines much more accessible.