By Jeff Bercovici
 
    Primedia has announced the appointment of Linda Platzner as publisher of Seventeen, the company’s flagship teen title. She replaces Lori Burgess, who left the company in November to join Conde Nast as publisher of Mademoiselle.
   Platzner was previously with Primedia as associate publisher of Modern Bride. She left in 1997 to join Peterson as group publisher of Teen and All About You magazines, but returned in October to take the title group publisher/vice president of Primedia’s Youth Entertainment Group.
   The first teen magazine when it was launched 54 years ago, Seventeen, claiming a total readership of 14 million, continues to lead the category with a circulation of 2.5 million. 
     That’s not to say, however, that it’s a static contest. The field is hot these days, with a raft of new titles, including Time Inc.'s Teen People.
  "I see YM and Teen, the traditional number two and three titles, being severely hurt by Teen People," says David Tanzer, president and CEO of Primedia Consumer Magazines.
     Though the two-year-old Teen People is fourth in circulation at 1.6 million, that number incompletely reflects the magazine’s growing strength. Consider, for example, Teen People’s ad page total of 822 for the period from January to November of 1999--second only to Seventeen’s 1,208, according to the most recent figures from the Publisher’s Information Bureau.
     YM, published by Gruner & Jahr USA, though second in circulation with 2.3 million, had the fewest ad page--542--of the four titles for the period.
     Peterson’s Teen, which has a circulation of 2.1 million, edged out YM with 563 ad pages.
   Teen People was close behind YM in advertising revenue, with $42.0 million to YM’s $42.8 in the first 11 months of 1999. Both were far behind Seventeen, which took in nearly $88 million. Teen’s ad revenue totaled $38 million in the same period.
      Despite Teen People’s rise, however, Seventeen has no intention of yielding its frontrunner status, says Tanzer.
      In particular, plans call for the magazine to use its website to greater effect in months to come. The website, which, says Tanzer, "will receive significant promotion from the magazine," is part of Primedia’s overall strategy of devoting more resources to new media endeavors, particularly in the teen area.
     Tanzer calls the teen market "the most important market to Primedia," which also produces Tiger Beat, Teen Beat, and the new Entertainmenteen.
   He cites the latter, which was conceived in April of this year and launched in July, as an example of Primedia’s ability move fast to consolidate its position among teens. He says Primedia will launch at least one magazine out of the Youth Entertainment Group in 2000, but declined to elaborate.

-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.