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Where the men’s market is going: teenagers

Posted in Media, Marketing, Mel Varley, Latest reporters' blogs February 25th, 2008 by Melinda Varley

News that the BBC is launching a new football magazine, Match of the Day, into the teenage boy market has certainly made the sector more exciting and left us wondering, is the market for teenage magazines set to take off again?

A few years of seeing the teenage girl’s magazine market plummet has left publishers sceptical as to what they can bring to the table in order to entice teenage take-up of magazines.

Natmags famously tried to relaunch its Jellyfish magazine as an online offering for teenagers and failed after just two issues, not long after the demise of Sneak. The trend has inevitably caught on as teenage girls look to read something more mature in the likes of women’s monthly titles and celebrity magazines, snubbing titles such as Bliss and Sugar.

So what makes the likes of the BBC and IPC, which is relaunching Shoot magazine as a weekly title, think that the boys market can once again take off?

The magazines in the football market have massive potential to be successful. This is obvious by the amount of sports coverage newspapers devote to football everyday. But what will entice boys to pay out for these titles?

In its day, Shoot and Bauer’s Match reached circulation of over 300,000, now they are both just reach over 100,000 each month.

My guess is that these titles certainly have their work cut out for them, especially in a marketing sense. Not only will Bauer and IPC be seeking to retain readers but to gain them and with a third similar magazine on the market, each will have to give a distinct offering.

While the launch of Match of the Day may revamp the market and once again spark some interest, depending on how its marketed, can it survive in a market that has already been tried and tested or is it about time we saw a publisher try something new?

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Tags Magazines, Match of The Day, IPC, Print

Comments (1)

ellie wallis’s comment is....

I don’t think that Match of Day magazine will be selling like hot cakes after it’s re-launch. Reasons for this being that there is so much coverage of sports and football in particular, in newspapers, magazines and on TV that the magazine will have to deliver something very special to get punters back to the shelves each week. They must offer something which is not recreated anywhere else. Either some sort of special analysis or behind the scenes coverage or a combination of a few things which magazines like Nuts has to offer the reader. E.g. Sport, women and fast cars with a bit of random trivia.

The fact is that young boys and girls for that matter have so many things to spend their money on, like iPods, laptops, concert tickets, and as far as magazines go, they are something which is often cut back on, or because of the ready information online, are a luxury, perhaps to buy as a one off. This is unless they have that special ingredient which keeps the top sellers on the shelves.

Posted February 25th, 2008 at 5:04 pm

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