Old news, young views

Wednesday, February 3, 1999

Old news, young views

ISSUES: Both new and established magazines

scramble to capitalize

on the teen-reader market

By Sandy Yang

Daily Bruin Staff

As your eyes run over the magazine racks in your local
bookstore, the colors and covers can blur indistinguishably for the
average browser.

All of these magazine conglomerates, whether they have offices
in every major city in the world or just a rented space in the
Valley, are hoping their publication will catch your eye. They hope
you will pick it up, flip through its pages and not be able to put
it down.

And how are they planning on doing that? For the college-age
audience, there isn’t one formula that has captured the versatile
readers of our generation.

Although there are prevalent trends, some of those publishers
who are daring to try something different are also succeeding in a
business where magazines have only a two in seven chance of just
staying on the racks.

Magazines, both established and emerging, with different styles
in visuals, content and topics are finding a readership in this
competitive market.

Among the new magazines that is beating the odds is Black Book,
a national alternative publication with a circulation of 70,000.
The urban-lifestyles magazine has enjoyed a run of more then two
years with an increasing circulation. Although Black Book does
cover the seemingly basic ground of celebrities, music, fashion and
art, the magazine was created to fill a niche left empty by most
mainstream magazines.

Editor in chief William Georgiodes feels that too many magazines
on the market are heavily media-driven and Black Book provides an
alternative to that mold. Coverage is mostly reserved for emerging
artists and trends in the top 20 cities of the country.

"It is for people who have been in the city for awhile looking
for the next big thing," Georgiodes said. "If you spend any time in
New York or L.A., there are no decent magazines out there."

To find information, Georgiodes said the public instead reads
"poorly done" newspapers or magazines like Detour or Interview.

"They’re a business trip and they don’t care quite as
passionately as others do (about their product)," Georgiodes
said.

Features editor Dale Brasel of Flaunt, a new magazine by the
founders of Detour, agrees that too many magazines are
celebrity-driven.

"Right now, to a certain degree with magazines, especially
magazines geared towards young people, it’s all about the sexy girl
on the cover or (they) put a million cover cuts on to get people’s
attention," Brasel said.

"We like celebrities as much as the next guy, but you know what;
that’s covered," Brasel said. "There’s 50 magazines out there and
that’s all they do, so it’s like going in and trying to redivide
the same slice of the pie. So we’ll let those guys fight over it.
We’re happy with the niche we’re carving ourselves."

Flaunt gives readers a new magazine concept, in the form of
di-cuts, half-pages and pop-outs which provide readers with a
visual treat not found elsewhere. Design and art are not only
written about but explored visually on the page by top
photographers and designers. Likewise, the content focuses more on
lifestyles than celebrities, through a visually cutting-edge
style.

With its premier issue out last October, Flaunt sold out in a
national and limited international market. Brasel believes that the
initial appeal of a magazine lies in the visual excitement, a
necessary asset to attract younger readers. But, Brasel warned,
that appeal has to carry throughout the magazine’s content.

"We just wanted something that will get the attention of the
people walking by the stands, and obviously that’s done through the
cover, and we’re proud that we followed up with that inside,"
Brasel said. "It’s the whole package. I would never sell this as
just a visual magazine. Absolutely not."

Brasel continued, "But if you don’t have the visuals, forget it.
If you just want to talk about society now, the younger generation
was brought up in the media generation with TV and video or
whatever, so I think they think in terms of visual."

Looking at the magazine market, that fact is prevalent. Faces
that grace covers also grace screens of television and film. And
there is still no denying that celebrities sell, especially
today.

"Everything’s sort of changing in the magazine world now," said
Mary Haney, assistant West Coast editor of Allure, a women’s beauty
magazine.

"It’s geared much more towards celebrities. We have many more
celebrity covers in our magazines and every other magazine as well
… The celebrities are replacing the supermodels, and the readers
respond to that."

More than ever, teens and young adults are the ones responding
to a slew of celebrities actually aimed at teens. A new brat pack
of sorts (i.e. Katie Holmes, James Van Der Beek, Jennifer Love
Hewitt, etc.) is emerging from television and pervading films
revolving around pubescence. Boy bands are cloned in the time it
takes to build shrines to them on the Internet. The most obvious
move from a magazine into this market is the recent spawn of People
– Teen People.

The idea for Teen People was kicked around for quite a while,
said Maria Baugh, deputy editor of Teen People.

"Some research was done and they decided that it was time to get
serious about the idea because of the teen market," Baugh said.
"The amount of money that teens were spending (was) growing … and
the number of teens was growing … so they decided it was about
the right time to give it a real try."

Although the market seems saturated with female teen magazines,
Baugh feels that Teen People brings something more to the
tested-and-true celebrity, fashion and beauty formula. It also
appeals to the intelligence of the reader.

"We focus a lot more on real kids doing real things, (whether
they are) doing things in their community or overcoming hurdles or
traumas," Baugh said. "The response has been huge and, honestly, it
surprised me in how great the appeal is. I think that proves that
teens definitely are a very smart audience, and they demand a level
that’s more than just celebrity or just fashion and beauty."

Baugh’s assertions manifest themselves in Teen People’s rising
circulation, which soared to 1.2 million with the February
issue.

In contrast to People’s spin-off, Esquire shows that older,
established magazines don’t have to launch a completely new version
of itself to attract a younger demographic.

65-year-old Esquire has received a facelift, courtesy of its
present editor in chief, David Granger. After heading a magazine
with an older demographic 18 months ago, Granger has just simply
made Esquire more fun and consequently more appealing to a younger
audience.

"It was a little bit mournful," Granger said of the past
Esquire. "It didn’t seem like it was having much fun … It was
sort of nostalgic, and I think a magazine should be incredibly
enthused and engaged by the world it finds itself in. And that’s
what we try to do."

Though Esquire is somewhat celebrity-oriented, it also shows
that striking covers aren’t just limited to the hunk-of-the-month
or a rising star from the new brat pack. In Esquire’s
year-in-review issue, a bruised-up Jerry Springer offers a thumbs
up under the title, "It’s Jerry’s world. We just live in it."

However, Esquire’s magazine world is not Jerry’s world. Well,
not exactly.

Though Esquire’s year-end issue also included a listing of the
Dubious Achievements of 1998 – where people in the media were
caught with their pants down, both literally and figuratively –
Granger is more interested in all the things behind Jerry’s world.
They are the stories behind the sensationalism, the human side of
it all. Even when juxtaposed with humor, Granger asserts that the
serious journalism and high-caliber writing have never disappeared
from Esquire’s pages.

In addition to a Jerry Springer story which questions his show’s
value, stories on O.J. Simpson’s current lifestyle or Congressman
Michael Huffington’s coming out as a gay man take an extra step to
humanize media-made characters. This also includes heroes such as
Mr. Rogers, the cover of last November’s issue and the catalyst of
hundreds of responses from an appreciative audience.

Granger attributes the magazine’s appeal and wide readership to
feature stories, which have struck a chord in people of all ages
and backgrounds.

"When I think of my reader, I don’t think of age so much as a
mindseta," Granger said. "I’m trying to go for an intelligent
audience who wants to be challenged with stories that are important
in the world, or they want to be connected to things that are
current, whether it be entertainment or politics or drama or
fiction."

Now what happens when we are drawn in by a magazine?

As readers, we are satisfied and enlightened with what the
magazine has to offer. But for the creative forces behind the slick
pages, the thrill of it is "readers who are involved in the
magazine and want to live in the little world of the stories we
run," Granger said.

"It makes you feel that people notice what you do and they
appreciate it, and it’s doing something for them," Granger said.
"And that’s a very gratifying thing."NICOLE MILLER

Students browse through the large selection of magazines at the
BookZone in Ackerman Union.

Allure and Esquire are changing their angles

to attract younger readers.

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