Teenage dream: Do Australian teenage girls need magazines in 2023?
Ruby O’Brien
For many of Australia’s women, teen magazines like Dolly and Girlfriend were a trusty guide to navigating the tumultuous teen years. Every pimple had a solution, every broken heart a remedy, and every boy was a heart-throb between the magazine’s glossy covers. For decades, the likes of Dolly and Girlfriend—filled to the brim with dating tips, horoscopes, fashion trends, celebrity gossip, and health advice—were a Bible for Australia’s teenagers. The ‘hottest’ celebrities donned the covers for interview exclusives, while the iconic Dolly Doctor and Girlfriend Sealed Section offered up professional advice for confused teens on sexual, mental, emotional and physical health questions.
Despite all their successes over the decades, the global media landscape has drastically changed. Social media and easy internet access have become entrenched in every facet of everyone’s lives in the 2020s, and advancements in technology have completely changed the world for magazine print publishing. 15 years ago, anyone could walk into a newsagency and be spoiled for choice with an abundance of teen publications. Today, that scene is very different. In a world where magazine print publishing is a consistent talking point, teen titles were the first targets to fall victim to an increasingly digital world and a vastly different generation of teens.
In 2023, there are no contemporary general-interest teen magazines on the market in Australia. While teen magazines once presented a huge opportunity for publishers, they no longer are relevant in today’s world. Is this gap in the market indicative of the times or is there untapped potential waiting for the right brand and the right marketing strategy to come along? Could a new Australian teen magazine successfully launch and stay afloat in 2023? The short answer: no. The long answer: it’s more complicated than that.
Are magazines really dead?
To effectively gauge the market for teen magazine titles in Australia, it’s important to understand where the magazine market currently stands, and if there are any audiences still out there.
The idea of print being dead is outdated and has been debunked by many, particularly in the bookmaking and bookselling industries. But for magazines, it’s hard to give a definitive answer. In reality, it depends on the audience of the magazine. There’s absolutely no denying that Australia’s magazine industry has suffered in recent years with many publishers forced to cease production on a range of titles covering an array of interests and industries.
Despite the news headlines claiming that magazines are dying or have already died, the statistics say otherwise. According to recent reports from Roy Morgan, more than eleven million Australians read print magazines in 2022, up 1.7 per cent on the previous year. However, those statistics only apply to some magazine genres. According to the data from Roy Morgan, only 12 magazine categories performed well in 2022. None of those were youth titles.
Smells like teen spirit
Once upon a time, teen magazines like Dolly and Girlfriend acted as an authority figure giving teenage girls a resource that dived deep into what was going on in the teen world. From reports of the dangers surrounding eating disorders and party pills to friendship guides and hot-or-not fashion and music lists, teen magazines in Australia were a way for teens to feel heard. Complete with advertisements, teen magazines were arguably the original influencers. As today’s teens turn to TikTok vlogs and Instagram stories to see relatable content, fashion inspiration and beauty trends, teen magazines, in their original formats, don’t have much of a place in today's media cycle.
It’s no secret that teenagers in 2023 are vastly different from the generations that came before them. While each new generation of teenagers is always going to be different, today’s teens—mostly younger gen Z’s and, shortly, older gen alphas—are the first to grow up with technology and social media completely entrenched in their lives. Most children and teenagers work exclusively on laptops and most have had a digital footprint in one way or another since before they were even walking and talking as babies.
These sentiments are echoed by Phillip Picardi, former chief content officer at Teen Vogue. In an interview with Kate Dwyer for The New Yorker in 2021, Picardi said: ‘It’s hard to image a teenager spending a sustained amount of time reading articles when so much of [the same information] is being disseminated via creators on TikTok, who are delivering it in short, snappy, concise, and extremely entertaining ways. Teenagers today are coming of age and forming opinions and world views that are increasingly informed by algorithms and the bubbles that algorithms create.’
Is it best to let go and celebrate what we had as opposed to trying to ‘fix’ the situation? It’s a hard question to answer, but one thing remains abundantly clear: gen Z doesn’t need a general interest magazine that is published on a semi-regular basis. As David Stam wrote in Innovations in Magazine Publishing: ‘teen magazines have come and gone, since their initial heyday in the 1960s and 70s but almost certainly, inconsistency in the market can be put down in part to the fickleness of the age group, [and] the advent of digital media.’
A survey by Year13 and Youthsense in 2021 found that 43 per cent of gen Z audiences never engage with any kind of print media (magazines and newspapers) at all. The report also found that young people in Australia are spending over a third of their waking lives staring at their phone screens. Regardless of whether a general interest magazine is published monthly, quarterly or yearly, it will not and cannot compete with social media. When today’s teenagers have their algorithms so tailored to their specific needs and interests, why would they purchase a magazine that contains only some things that might interest them? Why would teenagers in 2023 need Dolly Doctor when they can discreetly Google something? Moreover, why would they purchase a magazine made by adults, when they can interact directly with their peers online, regardless of whether it’s a teen influencer posting to millions of followers or a direct interaction with friends? They won’t and they should not. Today’s teenagers crave authenticity and, no matter the format—digital or print—teens won’t care about something that doesn’t mean anything to them, nor will they interact with it.
The scene of the crime
The new technological mediums and social media influencers aren’t just impacting consumer demand for teen magazines, they’ve also done damage to women’s general interest titles. The last generation of women who devoured every page of Dolly and Girlfriend haven’t made the natural progression to big sister titles Cleo and Cosmopolitan like the generations before them. In fact, both titles closed their doors at similar times to Dolly and Girlfriend. Bauer Media Group merged Cleo and Dolly back in 2013 in a shock move before axing Cleo in January 2016, and eventually Dolly in December 2016.
Similarly, Cosmopolitan’s Australian branch closed at the end of 2018 after 45 years of print publishing due to a lack of readership. Cosmopolitan, in particular, is an interesting example. The American and British versions of the publication still exist, and, arguably, still somewhat thrive. While the British version no longer produces a print magazine, it boasts an Instagram following of close to 500,000 at the time of writing. According to Cosmopolitan’s United States 2023 media kit, there’s still a regular print audience of 10.9 million. While that number seems huge (and unfathomable) for an Australian publication, America’s population is over 300 million more than Australia's, and Britain’s is about two and half times the size. When it comes to a numbers game, it’s hard to compare the Australian market to the rest of the world.
That being said, Australia isn’t totally unique in its lack of teen magazines in 2023. In the United States, Teen Vogue stopped producing print copies in 2017, Seventeen moved to a digital-first strategy in 2018, and Tiger Beat’s last print issue was in 2019. In the United Kingdom, the situation is equally dire. Shout recently announced that it would cease publication in February 2023, Bliss’s final issue was in 2014, and publisher Immediate announced that Top of the Pops was closing in October 2022. What is the reason for all the closures? Some publishers cite dwindling readerships, others claim it’s due to a lack of advertisers. The overarching reason is digitisation, a move to social media, and a new generation of teens who no longer need print in the same way.
Money, money, money
For magazines seeking to make a profit, it’s extremely rare that sales alone are enough to cover costs. Most of the time, advertisements provide the revenue for production, wages and editorial costs. However, these two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, readership statistics and advertisement revenue go hand in hand. Without a solid readership, advertisers are not willing to fork out the costs; but without advertisers, there wouldn’t be a magazine.
Ultimately, the move to online platforms has added another spanner in the works. Previously, editors could focus on curating and creating entertaining content that appealed to readers, while sales departments handled the advertising side of things—but this has now changed. Digitisation has muddied the waters between the two, meaning that editors are now part-time editors and part-time marketing professionals. Editors and publishers once focused on editorial preferences, consumer sales and detailed reader data; however, social media and the internet’s disruption to traditional consumer behaviours have meant that their skill sets are being used in different ways. Today, editors and publishers craft media kits to be used as ‘sales tools to sell advertising space to media buyers.’
Digital advertising also poses potential issues for generating revenue. These days, readers are far less likely to pay for content that they can receive for free online, effectively ruling out success surrounding paid content. Meanwhile, social media and Google search optimisation (aka SEO) has meant that traditional advertising has drastically changed. Couple this with adblockers that prevent digital advertisements from making appearances, and it’s little wonder why the online medium often fails for magazine publishers.
And to launch a magazine? That’s a whole different ball game. It’s rare that advertisers would be willing to pay for an ad in a new magazine without any statistics to support potential revenue, but new publications need to start somewhere, and it can’t happen without funding from the publisher. Starting any new venture is a risk but the stakes are especially high when it’s an attempted revival of a publication for a seemingly dead market.
Case study: Girlfriend 2.0:
A failed rebrand
Girlfriend 2.0 was officially launched at the start of 2021 with a mighty makeover and a glimmering sense of hope. In an online blog post/official announcement published on February 18, 2021, Girlfriend reintroduced themselves as an inclusive, progressive and, of course, fun best friend and companion to the teens of today. The catch? Girlfriend was no longer a print magazine. Instead, it was an online platform brought to audiences thanks to partnerships with major brands Pandora and John Freida. In the announcement, Girlfriend stated:
‘For more than 30 years, Girlfriend has informed, entertained, and inspired generations of teens in Australia. But, in 2021, the world for teens has changed – so we’re changing as well. Today the tone is a bit different – it’s about celebrating people of varying gender identities, ethnicities, bodies and backgrounds… our stanning of celebrities goes beyond whether we think they’re cute and dateable, we care about their values, too. And, when it comes to the idea of “Girlfriend”, we know that being fun, cute and fem isn’t just reserved for people who were assigned female at birth, it’s for everyone.’
On top of this, Girlfriend’s publisher, Are Media, also announced that Girlfriend would be incorporating former rival Dolly’s iconic Dolly Doctor into the new website design. After a five-year absence following Bauer’s closure of Dolly, Girlfriend relaunched the sexual and health advice column as a standalone feature on the new site. The relaunch also saw the return of the Girlfriend Model Search, which had founded the likes of modelling superstars Samantha Harris, Ruby Rose and Abbey-Lee Kershaw, among others. However, 2021’s model search was rebranded as a digital-first ‘Role Model Search’, which aimed to spotlight young people making a difference and using their voice to empower others.
The rebrand was a far cry from the magazine’s former glossy days in the 1990s and 2000s, where either sex tips or boy advice seemed to feature on most of the covers. Yet, it was a refreshing take that reflected gen Z: steering away from heteronormative, over-sexualised content and steering editorials towards something that felt fun and fresh. Despite the buzz around the relaunch, after two years, things seem to have fizzled. At the time of writing, Girlfriend hasn’t posted regularly on socials—Instagram and TikTok—since June 2022. The only kinds of content since then have been a sponsored GHD video uploaded to both accounts in December 2022, and some sporadic content here and there. Similarly, Girlfriend’s websites haven’t been regularly updated since, either. It was announced in March 2023, however, that a one-off print edition of the publication would be released in partnership with Prime Video to celebrate the release of the Australian Amazon original series, Class of ’07. The special edition was marketed as an exclusive collector’s edition, with a limited print run of 5000. The content inside acted as a ‘flashback’, featuring a range of editorial spreads that unpacked fashion, trends and celebrities from 2007. Despite the special edition, Are Media has remained quiet on the future of Girlfriend.
What went wrong?
Girlfriend’s attempts to relaunch go to show that a revival would, and perhaps only could serve for nostalgia’s sake. In other words, the only ones with a vested interest in Dolly and Girlfriend would be the ones who loved it in its heyday; but millennials and gen X aren’t the target audience anymore: gen Z is. And the revival—whether in partnership with a TV show or a fresh digital makeover—doesn’t cater to today’s teens in an authentic way, especially when apps like BeReal and story functions on social media promote the ‘here and the now’ for digital natives and tech-savvy teens. While Girlfriend took all the right steps—a strong multi-platform digital strategy, an inclusive and diverse focus, and a good-looking redesign—a general interest publication is always going to struggle with a move online due to a lack of unique content.
Mary Hogarth suggests that every publication has a life cycle from its early days all the way to its living death. Hogarth describes this ‘living death’ state as a period where publishers are effectively in denial, unable to acknowledge or believe that their beloved magazine is no longer read or valued by its readers. This is, perhaps, the reason why Girlfriend 2.0 never took off.
Niche triumphs
While general interest magazines have struggled to keep print audiences and adapt to online platforms, the same can’t be said for niche titles. Surprisingly, niche titles continue to dominate the Australian market, with indie publications like frankie boasting a readership of 247,000 per bi-monthly issue, as well as a masthead reach of more than 1.1 million. frankie might seem like a unique case, but, according to some, frankie’s success seems to showcase that there is still a demand for print as a medium. Rosanna Hunt also argues that perhaps it’s not the print medium that is struggling, but rather it’s the content that struggles to keep the audience's attention—particularly as many of the conventions and tropes seen within women’s magazines are increasingly outdated.
Moreover, niche magazines offer something that general interest titles don’t: credibility. According to Kevin M Baker, ‘general interest magazines have had problems maintaining stability.’ Despite all the turbulent changes in the publishing world, niche titles have actually cracked the code to remain relevant. Baker states that a focus on a small, loyal audience means that niche titles see their devoted readers happy to fork out for multiple subscription models, which means it’s easier to execute a successful digital strategy.
Similarly, there is still a definite love for print out there. Visual and aesthetic components of hard-copy magazines are important elements of the magazine reading experience for young Australian women. In the same body of research by Sarah Webb and Janet Fulton, there is a demand for young women to connect aesthetically with niche magazines. According to Webb and Fulton, young women seek interesting content, as well as a desire to feel a sense of ‘escape’ through the paper quality, photography, and other written and visual elements.
Conclusion: new content, new teens, new formats
While general interest magazines may have died, the successes of niche publications goes to show that a new teen magazine could be viable; however, it would need to exist in an entirely new way, cover new topics, and feature new advertisers.
It would also need a loyal audience and would probably take several years to build any kind of revenue. Despite this, the teen magazine isn’t dead, she’s just lying dormant—ready to reach out to a currently untapped market. For the dedicated and patient publisher, a multi-platform brand could be the ticket to success. Unlike its predecessors, the internet can act as a tool to generate readership, garner attention, and provide interactivity like never before: it just needs to be unique enough to make a difference.
About the author
Ruby O'Brien is a Melbourne/Naarm-based magazine editor and journalist, with a background in media and communications. While magazine publishing has her heart from 9 to 5, weekend Ruby hopes to one day write something worthy enough (and funny enough!) to be published as a book.