TABLOIDIZATION AND THE TEEN MARKET

Abstract

Popular journalism debates have often neglected magazines as an area for study, and teenage magazines in particular, despite the fact that many of those crying “tabloidization” are effectively simply accusing newspapers of becoming more like magazines. This article will define “popular” journalism and “tabloid” journalism, establishing them as distinct and different from each other, and will then consider whether a “tabloidization” of teenage magazines can be said to have occurred. Preliminary content analysis and interviews with nine teenage magazine editors and publishers, past and present, suggests a number of changes to editorial content, including the introduction of “diets” and increasingly “sensational” sex stories. But does this amount to “tabloidization” and, if so, what is behind it—and will it save teenage magazines or ultimately bring about their demise?