POPDISH

Another one bites the dust. Hearst announces it is shutting down its teen girl magazine CosmoGirl today, with December as its very last issue. They will be consolidating their teen magazine properties under Seventeen, which is currently the largest teen magazine, partially due to most of the other ones are out of business, such as YM, Teen People, Elle Girl, etc.

This comes as no suprise to me, as I’ve been champion the rise of online content for teens over print magazines ever since 1999! And with the help of awful Editor-In-Chiefs like Christina Kelly (who is literally the kiss of death for teen publications, 3 magazines have folded under her direction), and Atoosa Rubenstein (7 editors left under her first 2 month taking over Seventeen), it seems that online magazine will ultimately triumph over print magazine.

Although this is a big blow for Hearst, but they probably have the best online strategies for their teen group out of all traditional publishers like Conde Nast or any other competitors, they’ve been buying up key teen properties, and the new Editor-In-Chief of Seventeen Ann Shoket has impressive experience in online media. In fact, her and I will be speaking at the same teen media conference YPulse in November.

Who will fall next? Only time will tell. The future is bright and green for Kiwibox.com.