Teenagers and the “new magazine”
Why has Teen Vogue shifted it’s popular magazine into an online format?
Last night, Teen Vogue provided their Instagram audience of 3.3 million with a paparazzi snapshot of Taylor Swift hand-in-hand with her boyfriend — Joe Alwyn, and a link in their bio to read the full story. Within 15 hours the post had gained over fifteen thousand likes and numerous comments raving about the popular couple.
This engagement online is highly normal for this popular teen magazine. In 2017, Teen Vogue decided to re-focus the majority of its content to an online medium as they discovered their ‘‘audience growth [was] coming from digital platforms primarily’ (Silvia (2017). Consequently, other magazines such as Glamour, Seventeen and Cosmopolitan all started to follow suit and it became clear from this shift that ‘[the] digital is no longer a fad’ for magazine publishers. (Magplus, 2019).
Yet, what exactly has caused this radical change for teen magazines?
Audience & compatibility
A key advantage for moving content online, is that it fits the model of a typical teenager’s lifestyle. Ofcom (2019) reported that 69% of 12 to 15-year-olds now have a social media profile and Andersen & Jiang (2019) discovered that Instagram, specifically, is used by 72% of teenagers with access to the internet. It is evident that teenagers are now more than ever absorbed by the content appearing on their screens. They are no longer browsing magazine shelves after school, but rather double tapping pictures and finding out news through social media.
As a result of this digital development for teenagers, Teen Vogue’s transition to an online world reported a positive outcome that ‘quadrupled traffic’ to the website and ‘broke internal records’ (2017). McCarthy (2019) remarks that teenagers will use their phones to consume content as they ‘are most comfortable with’ this format. Similarly, Pool (2019) discovered that ‘Teens spend an average of 7 hours 22 minutes using screen media.’ Therefore, online content is an ideal way to boost engagement from your target audience as this is where they spend a lot of their time.
Production — never enough
Secondly, a benefit for having content online is that you keep your audience engaged. McIntosh (2017) states that “once it’s out there, it’s quickly shared, and readers move on to the next morsel. No-one wants to wait a week to read about it in a print magazine.” Similarly, a study by the NCCP (2018) emphasised how crucial social media was in being a platform of ‘immediacy’ — teenagers are hooked into the digital world because they get what they want with the click of a button and they don’t need to wait weeks to find out whether or not Kim Kardashian is divorcing Kanye.
Sharing is Caring
Finally, a key advantage for having online content and news is that it can be shared with ease and just a few taps. Teenagers don’t need to spend money on a printed copy to show their best-friend the latest gossip when they can simply send them a link over the internet or forward them a post on Instagram for free. Consequently, news travels a lot faster and this sharing also drives traffic back towards the original poster. Fieldman (2014) states that shares have the power ‘to domino into a wide network of potential customers.’ Therefore, moving content online not only has the advantage of being easily interactive but it will also boost growth.
Overall, it is crucial for teen-magazine brands to push themselves into the online world in order to remove the inevitable fear of being left on the shelf whilst people walk by gazing at the latest headlines on their phones and sharing at the tap of the button.
Bibliography
Anderson, M., & Jiang, J. (2018, May). Teens, social media & technology. Retrieved September 20, 2018 from the Pew Research Center website
pewinternet.org/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/
Fieldman (2014) ‘8 Cutting-Edge Marketing Tactics that work better than Facebook Ads’ https://www.forbes.com/sites/markfidelman/2014/08/26/8-cutting-edge-marketing-tactics-that-work-better-than-facebook-ads/?sh=3c67cf92277f [Online] Accessed 2 March 2021.
Gask (2014) ‘Is the internet responsible for the decline of teen magazines?’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-27713149 [Online] Accessed 22 Feb 2021
MagPlus (2019) ’10 Benefits of publishing digital magazines’ https://www.magplus.com/blog/ten-benefits-of-publishing-digital-magazines/ [Online] Accessed 22 Feb 2021
McCarthy (2019) Are Magazines Still Relevent in the Digital World? https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/11/19/are-magazines-still-relevant-in-todays-digital-world/?sh=7b65ff0b4457 [Online] Accessed 2 March 2021.
McIntosh, S (2017) ‘Magazines: How Print is surviving the digital age’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40897967 [Online] Accessed 22 Feb 2021
Nation Co-ordinating centre for Public Engagment (2014) https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/sites/default/files/publication/what_works_engaging_the_public_through_social_media_november_2018.pdf [Online] Accessed 2 March 2021
Ofcom (2019) Children and parents: media use and attitudes report 2018. Ofcom, pp 1–17 https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/media-literacy-research/childrens/children-and-parents-media-use-and-attitudes-report-2018. Accessed 22 Feb 2021
Silvia, E (2017) ‘Condé Nast Launches them, New LGBTQ Media Platform’ https://www.foliomag.com/conde-nast-officially-launches-new-lgbtq-media-platform/ [Online] Accessed 22 Feb 2021
Silvia, E (2017) ‘Conde Nast Shutters Print Edition of Teen Vogue’ https://www.foliomag.com/conde-nast-shutters-print-edition-teen-vogue/[Online] Accessed 22 Feb 2021
