GenDigital

Q1 2010 College Top Ten List Report Highlights

Another quarter is almost complete and that brings us a new wave of Top Ten. College is the first to come out this week followed by Kids and Teens next Monday. For some reason, may be it's just the simplicity of the report, Top Ten garners more press mentions than any other YT report, go figure, but I think the concept of ranking against a particular topic is something that most everyone can relate to pretty easily.

Moving onward here, the Q1 wave of College Top Ten was tweaked a bit as the celeb category was broken out by more general Hollywood celeb personalities and sports-specific personalities. We'll also continue to rotate between most socially responsible companies/brands and favorite sports-related activities. When all is said, we covered a total of 12 individual categories including favorite TV shows, magazine titles, musical artists, movie & DVD titles, male Hollywood celebs, female Hollywood celebs, sports celebs, video game titles, web destinations, clothing retailers/brands, footwear brands and sports-related activities. To read the full background and view the table of contents, click here. For non Youth Trends subscribers, Top Ten can be downloaded/purchased for $399.

Some topline highlights:

- TV: relatively unchanged at the top compared to Q4 '09, White Collar debuts among males and American Idol makes a surprise appearance among females

- Mag titles: six of the top ten titles among females are trending downwards on a sequential basis, sorta sums of the category's picture fairly well

- Musical artists: goo goo for Gaga and welcome to the list NeedToBreathe

- Movies & DVDs: V-Day performs as expected, no let up for The Hangover

- Hollywood/sports celebs: Jessica's back at the top, LeBron is still king and Elisha debuts for the first time

- Video game titles: COD Modern Warfare 2, 'nuff said

- Web sites: check out Sporcle, it's legit...

In Style's Teen Spinoff Says Bye Bye After Just Two Issues

If you really thought about it for a few minutes, this was totally counterintuitive from the get go. As Time, Inc is preaching (and executing) all things digital, what the heck were they doing launching a spin-off targeting of all segments, teen females, just as we said so long to Teen People and Elle Girl last year? Exactly, it wasn't happening. So, after just two issues, they have decided to kill the teen spin off, which originally was scheduled to be a quarterly publication. I would have to think it came down to ad pages. The premiere issue carried 24 pages and the most recent issue on newsstands now carried just 20 pages. With the selling prowess and clout of Time Inc and In Style I would have expected better, but the market has spoken, and they do not see the need for a new teen fashion, beauty and entertainment title to exist, even if it is only a quarterly and even if it is a spin off of a top ten book. There was no mention of whether the accompanying instyleyourlook.com web site would live on, but we'll keep an eye on it. I am a little disappointed. The contrarian side of my head thought the launch would do so well this year (you should at least check out one the issues, it's a nice mix of content and photos) they would run 10 times in 2008. So much for my thinking, it's just not a good time to be a teen magazine publisher.

Outside of North America, Newspapers Are Thriving

Subscribers to our Insights Report were able to review the latest print and online readership numbers among teens and college students for national newspapers in the recently delivered June Report. The story has been a familiar one over the past 18 months. Print readership continues to fall while online readership is not only growing rapidly, but its growth rate has reached a point where print has never dared to even touch. So it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize the papers are reaching new first-time readers through their digital offering. There are number of factors that have led to rapid ascent of online newspaper readership among the audience. If you aren't a YT subscriber and interested in reviewing a copy of the June report, you can email me for a copy. Anyway, back to the original thought. There is a report out today from the World Association of Newspapers that shows worldwide readership and sales of print newspapers have increased sharply over the past 5 years effectively positioning the media channel as the world's second largest behind only television and ahead of radio, outdoor, online, cinema and magazines combined...yes, combined. Asia seems to be place for where most of the action is taking place. Seven in ten world's to 100 best selling newspapers are based in Asia. China and Japan are home to 60 of the world's top 100 selling newspapers. The takeaway here is be careful and thoughtful in your view of various media channels. Just because something isn't working well here in the U.S. doesn't mean its broken throughout the rest of the world.

It's The Schools Versus The Magazine Rankings

I don't know about you, but I like looking at ranking statistics. I like to see who leads the American League in home runs, I like to see who leads in the NFL in yards per carry, and of course, I like to see what young people think the best show on television is. I think it is fair to say, I share a lot of company. Magazine publishers will tell you their "best of" or "rankings" special issues are some of their top newsstand sellers of the year, which bodes well since newsstand sales for lots of publishers have stunk lately. One of the more famous or infamous, depends on which side of the aisle you're on, annual ranking reports comes to us every year from U.S. News and World Report where it ranks the top colleges and universities in the country. In anticipation of this year's issue, there is a growing chorus from some college administrators, mostly from smaller liberal arts schools, to boycott a portion of the magazine's rankings system. The administrators are calling into question what is known as the "peer assessment" portion of the rankings system which makes up a quarter of a school's overall score and rank. It should be noted that the peer in this case is not the student, rather they are college presidents, provosts and other high ranking college and university officials. The administrators who take issue with the rankings say the peer component puts their fellow members of academia in an awkward and uncomfortable position. But so far, the movement to boycott the rankings has been limited with only 12 of the 1,500 participating schools signing on. I wonder if the 12 who take issue with the rankings come in high or low on the U.S. News & World Report list? Wanna take a guess? I don't know of any person, company or institution who doesn't end up complaining and highlighting weaknesses of any report that comes out that puts them in a lower position than they feel they should be in.

Men's Health Creates Campus Extension

Men's Health, the 9th most read print magazine by teens and college students, has ambitious plans to introduce a new supplement dubbed accordingly "Men's Health On Campus" as students head back to campus in the fall. Right now, it looks like somewhat of a strategic experiment with only one supplement planned for the fall on about 30 campuses in 10 markets. Assuming they meet their objectives, Rodale, the parent company of Men's Health, says they'll go ahead an issue a spring supplement with hopes of turning into a regular quarterly thereafter. It looks like Men's Health On Campus will employ a similar distribution model of some other magazine brands who have attempted to reach the market as well. The supplement will be bundled within participating campus newspapers. Of course, their hope is that all students read their campus newspaper, which brings me to my next point. For years, the campus newspaper was a media consumption staple of nearly all students. However, in recent years, there has been some erosion in terms of regular readers since a lot of the information published in campus newspapers is now available online via the school's portal or other web sites. That's not to say the campus newspaper is a dead man walking, but hopefully the company did its research and found out who the typical campus newspaper reader is. The company says it will distribute a total of 500,000 copies and will also produce a corresponding web property.

Teen Vogue Jumps on Adweek Hot List

Someone forgot to tell Teen Vogue that the teen magazine category was dreadful. Defying expectations (including our own somewhat dire predictions for the niche category as a whole) Conde Nast's Teen Vogue continues to rake in the ad pages and stabilize their subscriber base, partly made up of former YM readers. Trade magazine Adweek just released their 2007 Hot List of magazines and Teen Vogue came in 5th place, up from 10th position last year. According to the piece, Teen Vogue's revenues are up over 30% compared to last year, while its ad pages are up 22%. Teen Vogue was the only teen magazine to make the list surrounded by esteemed company like O, The Oprah Magazine, red hot US Weekly and Time Inc's powerhouse Real Simple. Not that we are experts on the magazine category by any stretch, we do try and track some of the basic readership trends. That said, we were somewhat surprised not to see Rachael Ray's new, fast growing title, Everyday, not on the hot list. Anyway, hats have to go off to Teen Vogue, they're up when the overwhelming majority are either flat and down, plus they're doing it against a demographic that it is more than partial to new media channels and outlets.

Can Bauer's New Cocktail Serve Up A Winner For Twentysomethings?

Talk about a contrary strategy...Bauer Publishing, the German publisher responsible for titles including the recent hit InTouch is now off to conquer twentysomething women. Huh? Did I read this correctly? At a time when most major publishers are scaling back their print operations and boosting their digital investments, what could Bauer be thinking in launching another weekly title? Apparently, they think that have the special sauce to do just that. Cocktail will offer twentysomething women a combination of celebrity news, relationship tips, health and nutrition content and fashion and beauty info...so, basically everything except travel and finance content. As soon as the announcement came from Bauer, a backlash of negative comments and doomsday predictions followed. Before everyone closes the door on them, remember this was the same company that introduced a successful celeb title into the mix when practically everyone said the category was already over saturated and this is also a company that has figured out how to sell at the newsstand, which in itself, is no small feat.

New Niche Magazine Targeting Muslim Teens Debuts

With the exception of a few entertainment and fashion titles, the magazine category, the teen magazine category to be more specific, continues to hemorrhage readers and ad pages. So, one would think this would not be the most ideal time to launch a new title...right? Not exactly, last summer, I profiled Quince Girl, a new niche title targeting Hispanic teen females and now, according Mediapost, there's a new title out called Muslim Girl Magazine, targeting who else, teenage Muslims living in the U.S. According to the article, there are about 400,000 Muslim teens living in the U.S. I get the whole concept about Muslim Americans being a disenfranchised audience segment and there is an opportunity to fix that with this new targeted title, but I have to question the overall size of the audience segment. The publisher is quoted in the article comparing the Muslim teen population to the Hispanic teen population. I don't think that is a very fair comparison, although it's probably the only one she could come up with. The reality is that there are approximately 9 million Hispanic teens living in the U.S. or about 23 for every one Muslim teens. That's scale, that's real market opportunity for brand marketers and media companies. Anyway, we'll see how it goes, the bi-monthly pub is available by subscription for $19.99 and will also be on newsstands. The company publishing the magazine expects a circulation of 50,000, or just over 10% of all teen Muslims nationally.

Running A Print Mag Makes You A Digital Expert?

As we covered over and over again this year, almost to the point that I am actually getting nauseous, the traditional teenie bopper magazines: Seventeen, CosmoGirl, etc. are struggling big time. Circulation is down and ad pages are down, which is a lethal combination. Already this year we said goodbye to the print versions of Teen People and ELLEgirl. An optimist would tell you that it means greater opportunity for the pack that still stands, i.e. Seventeen, CosmoGIRL and Teen Vogue, but the reality is, for the most part, with the exception really being Teen Vogue with some of their lux advertisers, the endemic teen brands are taking dollars away from print and re-deploying them in more strategic channels, like the Internet and event marketing. So, with all that said, it was no surprise to hear that much heralded (and sometimes controversial according to some inside sources at Hearst) Seventeen editor in chief Atoosa Rubenstein was leaving her post last month. The thing I don't get though is a quote that someone forwarded me yesterday she made to WWD, the fashion and beauty trade. The former editor has launched her own consultancy, dubbed Big Momma Productions and is on the look out for "tech and digital-savvy Little Mommas" to hire. How a print-exclusive person can identify digital expertise (and talent) is beyond me, but stranger things have happened. Good luck to her.

FHM Calling It Quits

A victim of market forces, Emap-owned FHM magazine has decided to shut down its U.S. print edition after seven years. Various reports had the magazine's ad pages down this year by 20% to 22% which is pretty dramatic for a single title. The FHM retreat caps a rough and tough year for magazine publishers. It started back in April when Hachette pulled the plug on Ellegirl and about six weeks later Time, Inc shuttered Teen People. Both of the teen titles still live online and I would think FHM will also have some sort of identity online, but I didn't read anything confirming that. According to the most recent Top Ten List report, FHM was the 8th most popular magazine title among teen and college men, but considerably behind other male titles like Playboy and Maxim. It's not guaranteed, but there is a relative likelihood that Playboy and Maxim get small bumps in male readers, but nothing too crazy to break the bank.