Give the readers what they want. In theory, any publisher who follows that rule is guaranteed never to go broke. Unfortunately for the publishers, it's hard to figure out what readers want. So when the publishers of teen magazines decide what they're going to emphasise, they tend to reach for the mailbag. In it, they find hundreds of letters looking for information about sex, and thousands demanding more pictures of Leonardo Di Caprio in shorts.
So what's the problem?
Well, one of the "problems" with the world of teen magazines is similar to the situation with teen books that we looked at in media scope last week. That is: publishers can say they are targeting a particular age group, but real teenagers in the shops don't seem to behave the way the marketing people say. Face it: how many 17-year-olds do you know who read J17? Not a lot, right? Like Bliss, also allegedly aimed at or around the 16-17 mark, it's principally bought and read by early teenagers.
The story applies right down the line. Smash Hits, Top of the Pops and the like are supposed to be for young teenagers. It's more likely, however, to be 10- and 11-year-old girls who are plastering their bedroom walls with the pop-star posters from these magazines. The best-selling teen magazine in Ireland, Sugar, is aimed at mid-teenagers, but it's more likely to appeal to 13- and 14-year-olds. So what are Transition Year-age girls - age about 15 or 16 - likely to be reading? Try Nineteen, More, Mizz, Minx. These magazines, as well as focusing on more "grown-up" lifestyles and products, take it entirely for granted that their readers are sexually active, and advise them accordingly, with articles that leave nothing to the imagination.
However, the most reliable surveys - that is, not the ones where readers send a reply card into the magazine, but ones conducted confidentially and at random among real teenagers - say that most girls and boys of that age are definitely not having sex regularly. In fact, most of them have never done so at all.
So does reading magazines like this put pressure on girls to have sex, by portraying it as the norm? Some adults reckon it does, citing what they call the "herding instinct" among teenagers - the desire to do what it seems like everyone else is doing.
These fears are probably exaggerated. Magazines and other parts of popular culture are pretty saturated with sex, with the idea that everyone's doing it; on the other hand, how do these pressures compare with other ones, such as fear of pregnancy, fear of health consequences and fear of parents' reaction? Many girls also have moral concerns about sex which might inhibit them; others refrain from sex because of the lack of opportunity.
Moreover, most girls have a pretty good idea from talking with their friends about what's really "normal" behaviour for their "herd". That doesn't stop periodic outbreaks of moral panic. In 1995, when the problem page of TV Hits gave a 16-year-old girl explicit advice on how to enjoy oral sex, the magazine was banned from the shelves of the major British chains - W H Smith, Sainsburys, Asda, Safeway and Tesco. When, a few months later, Britain's Health Education Authority was involved in a campaign to promote responsible attitudes to sex among teenagers, and placed ads in Sugar to reach its target audience, the newspapers screamed: "State cash helps fund `teen sex' magazines".
Still, if we're sceptical about how much these magazines can affect teenagers' behaviour, what about attitudes? All those sex stories may be an opportunity to indulge your imagination rather than brush-up for a date, but do they, and all other stories about boys, promote another sort of conformity?
From one cover to the other, many of these magazines promote the idea that you are what you look like - and that, let's face it, you could look better. (It's no coincidence that most of the ads are for make-up and hair products.) And the measure of your attractiveness is, in the end, your ability to attract and keep a boyfriend. In the magazines aimed at younger readers, the tireless emphasis is on "totty" - muscle-y, pouty pictures of handsome young men from TV shows or pop groups.
Again, hopefully most girls can take this with a grain of salt. But how does all this emphasis on looks, boys, snogging etc affect the culture that, say, girls with disabilities have to live in? What about girls who may be coming to terms with lesbianism?
And what about the boys who have to compete with the fantasy?
next week
Freedom of Information - There's been a quiet revolution in the way citizens can find out how the State does its business. Does the new openness work? Does it do journalists any good? How could you use it?
No prizes for guessing the purpose of a magazine cover. The cover sets out to convince you, as you stand in the newsagent, to buy the magazine. A large number of magazines are bought on impulse off the rack, rather than being planned and regular purchases - and publishers know a cover can make all the difference. (Why do you suppose Princess Diana was always on magazine covers?) Generally, the younger the target audience is, the more madly busy the layout of the cover. Magazines aimed at older teenagers tend toward a single main topic, with other short, clear headings.
