Teenage Angst

Print mags are so last century for modern teens. These days they talk gibberish and flaunt themselves on social networking sites instead. If they want gossipy and salacious content they can find it all online. Newsstand teen mag sales have been imploding as a result. How are the big publishing companies responding? So far they seem to be trying to replicate the print formula online with little success. Duh. Kids don't read stuff online. They watch videos, post photos, write badly-spelled grunty sentences to each other. They interact. Some enlightened media companies are beginning to catch on (Dennis Publishing's 'Monkey'; and Hachette Filipacchi's 'Sugar' social networking application, for example). But it's a tough market and not for the faint-hearted. Read my analysis in New Media Age magazine here.