Kelsey Tyburski, a junior at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, looked forward to receiving her Ellegirl magazine in the mail every month for the past two years. She depended on its advice about the best clothing, makeup and jewelry for each season.
But this summer, Ellegirl published its last print issue. ``I'm very bummed,'' said Tyburski. Although Ellegirl relaunched its Web site in October, Tyburski said she wouldn't go online for fashion advice.
Ellegirl is just one in a line of major teen magazines that have recently closed. Celebrity-focused Teen People stopped publishing with its September issue and YM stopped printing in 2005. Do these closures reflect a shift in the way teens are getting the scoop on fashion and celebrities?
``They get it instantly,'' said Anne Sachs, executive editor of Ellegirl.com, a Web site which now has more interactive content and social-networking opportunities. ``It's hard to keep up with any other medium besides the Web.''
Popular social-networking Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook enable teens to constantly ``do what teens like to do most, which is talk to their friends,'' said Anastasia Goodstein, a San Francisco-based writer who publishes Ypulse, a blog about Generation Y for media and marketing professionals.
Flipping through a magazine is ``not the same hyperconnected experience you have when you're commenting back and forth on your friend's MySpace page,'' she said.
The teen magazines that still survive in print are trying to adapt to teen habits by expanding into other media and adding extra incentives to buy their brand. ``To be successful, magazines have to offer you opportunities that go beyond just what's on the printed page,'' said Atoosa Rubenstein, editor in chief of Seventeen magazine. (She announced last week that she is leaving the post at the end of the year.)
Rubenstein has created her own My Space page and blog, hosted an MTV reality show called ``Miss Seventeen'' and added special offers to the print magazine, including coupons to popular clothing stores.
Rubenstein also recently slashed Seventeen's celebrity section because ``to have a monthly entertainment section is just not relevant. You guys are getting it online,'' she said. The magazine has beefed up entertainment coverage on its Web site, Seventeen.com, which will relaunch by the end of the year.
``Traditionally magazines have always seen the Web as a place to shovel their content onto,'' said Ypulse's Goodstein. ``Now they're realizing that it has to be much more than that.''
Rubenstein believes print magazines are still the best place for teens to find fashion advice, as well as information on other life issues, from sex to internships. ``Your parents are often a little too close to the situation,'' she said. ``I think that our role is to be a helpful big sister, someone who is non-judgmental but yet has good judgment.''
Kelly Peters, a senior at Branham High in San Jose who has subscribed to Cosmogirl! and Teen People for the past three years, said she probably wouldn't go to a Web site for fashion news. ``If it's online, it just doesn't seem appealing to me,'' she said.
However, Sachs said that the month Ellegirl closed, Ellegirl.com had the highest traffic month in its history.
``They seem to be finding each other without the print magazine,'' she said of the magazine's readers.
``In terms of fashion, they get a lot of their advice from each other, and also from an editorial voice, and that's what we're trying to create a hybrid of,'' with the new Web site, she said.
Leah Karlins is a senior at Branham High in San Jose.
