Thaindian News

New York, Oct 12 (IANS) CosmoGirl magazine, teen sibling of Cosmopolitan, is to cease publication by the end of the year because of shrinking ad pages, but will continue to run its website considering teenagers spend more time online, the publishing company has announced.Hearst Corporation, the publishing company, said Friday it was shutting the teen monthly CosmoGirl. The December issue will be its last. After that, subscribers will receive Seventeen, another Hearst magazine. The company will continue to run the profitable Web site CosmoGirl.com.

With competition from the Web and gossip weeklies, more traditional magazines aimed at teenagers have had trouble retaining readers and advertisers. In 2006, Elle Girl shut down and Time Inc. closed Teen People.

Carolyn Dubi, a media planner, says teenagers are either going to the Web, or “they’re turning toward books that are not so teen-oriented, so they’ll turn to a Cosmopolitan or a Glamour or a Vogue”.

The magazine industry overall is struggling as ad pages shrank by 7.4 percent in the first half of this year. CosmoGirl fared worse: its ad pages fell 14.5 percent, to about 298 pages. Seventeen’s ad pages were down 5.7 percent, to 377 pages.

Started in 1999, CosmoGirl struggled with the question plaguing teenagers themselves: how grown-up did it want to be?

Its successful adult sister publication, Cosmopolitan, is known for its “50 ways to drive him wild” kind of cover-lines, but CosmoGirl gave a more wholesome feel.

The November issue has features like “Are Your Parents Ruining Your Life?” and tips on controlling acne.

The most risqué element appeared to be a query from a 19-year-old asking if one had to be 18 or older to buy condoms.