madcomments

Will Jellyfish flop a second time round?

Posted in Media, Digital, Nikki Preston, Latest reporters' blogs June 27th, 2007 by Nikki Preston

Last week was a busy time for Nat Mags, which not only restructured its management team, but also managed to axe CosmoGirl! and relaunch e-zine Jellyfish into a completely new market.

The result means that like many of its competitors, including Emap and Hachette, NatMags has also seen a huge decline in the teen girls’ sector and opted out of it in favour of a more blossoming sector.

The refocused Jellyfish (which is nothing like the original magazine launched 14 weeks ago) is targeting a more mature 18 to 25 female group and has swapped teen crushes and younger stars such as Lindsay Lohan for fashion and of course style icons such as Victoria Beckham.

But who is NatMags trying to kid and where exactly it heading with this new launch?

The first Jellyfish (targeting a very broad 13 – 18 year old market) was obviously a flop but in an effort to save face and not  look like a failure in the e-zine market (especially after Dennis’ Monkey e-zine was such a success) - and of course not chuck away all the money invested in launching Jellyfish in the first place -  the name and concept lives on.

But Jellyfish the second is actually a completely different magazine and has been repositioned so it is now competing with, and in many ways mirroring, IPC’s newly launched high street weekly Look. This move suggests that Look is gearing up for a positive first ABC in August - but also means that it has pipped IPC to the post in launching a digital version into the same demographic.

However, who knows whether Jellyfish be more successful this time round or like the original Jellyfish, it too is destined for another big flop?

And if after its completing its trial phase in September it also crashes and burns then perhaps women in their twenties are bucking the trend set by young men and teen girls who are still turning to the traditional print medium for now.