By Jeff Bercovici
 
    Laura McEwen says that when she took over as publisher of Gruner & Jahr's YM magazine last month, people kept talking to her ominously about how competitive the teen market had suddenly become.
    McEwen was undaunted. In fact, she professes to be enthusiastic about the rash of new entries to the category, such as Teen People and Cosmo Girl. 
    "With all the change going on, it gives advertisers an opportunity to realign their alliances to reflect what’s new, what’s interesting."
    After all, when you’re runner-up by a hair, change has the potential to be very good indeed.
   Although Primedia chief David Tanzer recently told Media Life that he believed Teen People was putting the squeeze on YM and Teen magazine, McEwen sees things differently.
    "I think Teen People has cut more into Seventeen than into anybody else."
    With frontrunner Seventeen reeling from the blow, this could be YM’s opportunity to close the gap. It’s seizing the chance with initiatives like a special March issue guest-edited by MTV celebrities. 
   In April the magazine introduces 13 new columns, and at some time in the spring it will relaunch its web site as a fully-featured online companion to the magazine. 
   McEwen has a theory about why the teen category is so hot these days, straightforward enough, yet in its own way profound: because the 18-34 year olds of tomorrow are deciding their brand loyalties today.
   "It makes sense for marketers to say, ‘We’ve been focusing on the boomers but now we need to get back to the beginning of the cycle,’" says McEwen. "From 15 to 17, those are critical years for brand awareness."
    With its rate base of 2.2 million, YM is the second-largest teen fashion magazine, hovering within striking distance of Primedia’s Seventeen, which has a rate base of 2.4 million. Emap Peterson’s Teen magazine is not far behind, with a circulation of 2 million.
   But of late, other contenders have been crowding onto the field. Upstart startups like Time Inc.’s Teen People, Hearst’s Cosmo Girl and Primedia’s Entertainmenteen have given the traditional top three titles something to think about.
    But McEwen says the competition doesn’t necessarily have to produce losers, noting that in 1999 teen magazines as a category were up 400 ad pages over the previous year.
    This is largely due to marketers like Donna Karan and Ralph Lauren, who are increasingly recognizing the importance of courting teen consumers and rolling out products and advertising for younger people.
     Marketers see teens growing not just in terms of numbers—there will be 17 percent more of them by 2005—but in terms of purchasing power as well, says McEwen, citing a finding that 13-19 year olds spend an average of $172.50 each week.
    McEwen came to YM from New Woman, where she presided over a repositioning that cost a reported $40 million. Though the effort was by all indications a success, parent company Rodale Press abruptly closed the title last December, citing doubts that the magazine would be able to build circulation up to expectations.
     The closure came amid rising turmoil at the family-owned publishing house as a new generation is about to take over.
    Early in the fall Men’s Health lost its longtime editor, and its publisher quit last month. More recently,  John Griffin, president of the magazine unit, announced his resignation after being passed over for the position of president and chief operating officer of Rodale Inc.
    Many speculate that the changes are the result of discontinuities that occur as a new generation takes control of the family-owned company.
    Though Rodale may be in turmoil, all has not ground to a halt: the company has announced plans to test the waters in the teenage boys’ market with a Men’s Health spinoff called MH-17. The magazine will launch at a bi-monthly frequency this September, with a web site starting this spring.

-Jeff  Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.