Social networking causes teen magazine slide

Thu, 16 Aug 2007

The growth of social networking sites continues to hit the teen magazine sector, with the majority of titles posting another set of gloomy circulation figures. The teenage lifestyle sector was down by 8.1% in the January to June period and the entertainment magazines were down by 4.7%.

In the lifestyle sector, Sugar posted another fall - albeit from a market leading position - to 187,059 copies. The circulation is down 6.7% period-on-period and 6.6% year-on-year. Bliss is also down by more than 20% in the period.

In the entertainment sector, BBC Magazines' Top of the Pops managed to contain its slide and has reported a minor fall of 1.9% period-on-period. TV Hits is down by a huge 17.4% in the period and 28.6% year-on-year. It's Hot is one of the few titles to have recorded a slight improvement to 57,515 copies - an increase of 0.9% in the period.