Coming Late, Fashionably, Teen Vogue Joins a Crowd
By DAVID CARR THE NY TIMES

Magazines for teenage girls can be as competitive and trendy as the readers they woo, but Condé Nast Publications is betting there is room for one more petite guest at the party, as long as it is remarkable enough to stick out from the crowd.

Next week Condé Nast will publish the first regular issue of Teen Vogue, an adolescent sibling to the fashionable Vogue. The size of Teen Vogue, about one-third smaller than the average magazine, and its inexpensive price tag — at just $1.50, it will cost about as much as a Chap Stick — will separate it from the pack, as will its overwhelming obsession with clothing, accessories and beauty. Most of the other full-size magazines for teenagers, like Primedia's Seventeen and Gruner & Jahr's YM, cost at least twice as much and are dominated by celebrity coverage and relationship advice.

"We are going to do what we do well, which is fashion, beauty and style," said Amy Astley, the editor in chief of Teen Vogue and the former beauty director at Vogue. "A lot of other teen magazines are focused on relationships, boys, sex and embarrassing moments. That is not our equity."

So teenage readers can expect to find articles in the first issue about "avoiding a catastrophe on the catwalk" (scary business, that) and the dangers of overtanning.

But Teen Vogue is late to a party that may be losing steam. After five years of steady growth in circulation up to 2001 — driven in large part by the success of two newcomers — Teen People (from Time Inc.) and CosmoGirl (from Hearst Magazines) — the teenage category is down in terms of total circulation, to 8.2 million from 9 million. And advertising pages were off slightly in 2002 compared with 2001. (The slowdown stems in part from the closing of Teen magazine, which was folded into Primedia's Seventeen. It continues to be produced six times a year as a newsstand-only magazine.)

Producing a magazine that aspires to be the ultimate accessory for the fashion-conscious teenager is an unusual choice for Condé Nast, a unit of Advance Publications, because it has no expertise in the teenage category and generally likes to invest in magazines with substantial advertising and circulation potential. After four test issues, Teen Vogue will publish six times this year and 10 times in 2004 with a promised circulation of just 450,000; the Condé Nast business model for profitable magazines requires a circulation of at least 750,000.

And it remains unproven whether a magazine can find a mass audience with a focus on fashion. When Teen magazine started losing market share, it tried focusing on shopping and celebrity without success, and Elle Girl, published by Hachette Filipacchi Media since 2001, has a circulation of 400,000. Even if Teen Vogue succeeds, it will no doubt bump into Lucky, another Condé Nast magazine with a focus on low-price shopping, which has its own teenage readers.

The competition is daunting enough to make a grown-up publishing executive as insecure as a teenage girl. But Gina Sanders, publisher of Teen Vogue, says she thinks she has the ultimate weapon when it comes to the war for label-conscious teenagers. "Vogue is a very powerful brand that the average 13-year-old already knows a lot about," Ms. Sanders said. "Yes, the category is competitive, but there are a huge number of teens who don't have identical interests."

"Teen girls are voracious readers, but everyone is trying to get into this space," said Michael Wood, vice president at Teenage Research Unlimited. "It is a very competitive fight, and I don't know if there is going to be room for all of them."

Perhaps Teen Vogue's small size will allow it to squeeze in, but the idiosyncratic packaging requires significant investment in custom-sized magazine racks at retail outlets. Condé Nast has used the "Euro-sized" magazine in Italy with a small-size version of Glamour, and the British edition of Glamour has been a hit in the same format, growing by 15 percent in its first year of introduction and overtaking British Cosmo, according to Jonathan Newhouse, chairman of Condé Nast International.

But the addition of Elle Girl and Teen Vogue to the category — both magazines dedicated to the fashion-forward mini-she — may overwhelm teenage girls with too much choice.

"There is all sorts of me-too in this category," said Mr. Wood, who pointed out that Gwen Stefani, the cover subject of the magazine's debut issue, had graced the covers of four teenage magazines in recent months. "If these magazines become interchangeable, where is the value for the consumer?" Read the full article (free reg. needed)

This is a (partial) list of Rachel Hunter's ex boyfriends and husbands:

Rod Stewart
Liam Gallagher
Leonardo DiCaprio
Mark Wahlberg
US actor Michael Weatherly
Manchester United star Ryan Giggs

And now she can add Robbie Williams, who according to various reports dumped her immediately after the New Year.

Bizarrely enough, January 13 is precisely the date on which Rachel Hunter was dumped by Rod Stewart as well - in 1999. Guess she's not very good in Sylvester nights.

Things started to turn sour at the end of November last year when Robbie met aspiring model Gemma Segal at a charity go-karting race and asked her on a date.

Robbie has never been able to hold down a long-term relationship. One of his longest was with former All Saint Nicole Appleton, who became his fiancee. They split up four years ago - and she later revealed she had aborted Robbie's child.

Rachel, still a knockout at 34, is currently on a real estate shopping spree, according to reports in the financial press. Rachel and her agent, Andy Haden, are amongst the investors in a new housing project in the Hilton development of the Bali island. It seems Rachel Hunter tries to take advantage of the drop-out prices, following the terrorist attack on the island last year. This girl was always quick to recognise opportunities.