Shot in the dark

This stroppy looking teen with his pants slung low and his butt crack and undies sticking out the back, a big chain jangling between the pockets and a mullet hairstyle, sidles up to the magazine counter at the CNA in Sandton City, starts browsing and looks unimpressed.

‘The only local mags I read are GQ, FHM and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition,” he tunes in a Jozi drawl. ‘But the only mags I buy are international. These local mags are usually picked up off mates’ coffee tables.”

Lincoln is a black skater kid, aged 19, browsing at the same store. ‘Between my friends and I, we hardly buy mags, then only the ones that are specialised, like Blunt and Session.”

Steph is an older white dude with a goatie, aged 26. ‘I don’t read many mags, unless they are international,” he says gripping a Loaded loosely between thumb and forefinger.

Judging by the overall circulation of dedicated youth magazines, and titles that enjoy a large youth readership in South Africa, many other young people feel the same way.

Of South Africa’s 46 million people, more than 9.5 million of them are aged between 15 and 25 (Statistics SA 2003 mid year estimates). If the Living Standards Measurements (LSMs) are to be trusted, then 16.5 million South Africans occupy the upper LSMs 6 to 10 ‘target market’, and almost 3.5 million of them are between the ages of 15 and 25.

So how come no youth magazine is selling more than 20 000 copies in a market of 3.5 million?

Maybe Andile, a 25-year-old advertising creative, found browsing the mags at Exclusive Books in Gardens, Cape Town knows the answer. ‘Because there are no real youth mags worth checking out,” he explains. ‘Generally I’ll look, but I won’t buy.”

And looking at the circulation figures of the market leaders in the dedicated local youth magazine sector confirms the suspicions: these titles have long been falling short of serious market penetration.

Niche youth magazines like Blunt (17,151) and Saltwater Girl (15,021) are doing as well as the broad SA youth market titles like SL (15183) and Y Magazine (17,047), which are doing about as well as the teen girls’ magazines like Wicked (14,500) and Seventeen (just breaking in to the market with no ABC available). (All quoted figures ABC January to June 2003).

Atoll Media, publishers of Blunt, Saltwater Girl and ZigZag, have managed to capture a good segment of the defined youth market even though they are niche youth publishers. ‘In fact Saltwater Girl has been the leading teen female title for three ABC cycles in row,” beams Craig Sims, Atoll’s publisher.

Despite the aspirational value of the beach lifestyle model, these magazines are generally too niched to access the big sales in the mainstream youth market. Moreover, none of the titles have been particularly quick to pick up black readership, with Blunt being the most representative with a 10% non-white demographic.

Asked what Atoll Media is doing to attract a more integrated market, Sims said: ‘We’re doing nothing to engineer anything. We’re reflecting our world – Bluntworld, the Saltwater Girl headspace, or surf and beach culture – as it is. What’s exciting is that as time goes by what we are reflecting is becoming more and more integrated. The youth market is leading the social transformation of this country. We’re reflecting that, and as it becomes more prolific, our demographic data will show this. I guarantee you this. This ratio is changing rapidly – as rapidly as society is transforming. No faster, no slower.”

With regard to the mainstream youth titles, how does one justify such small fish in such a big pond?

‘I think you need to factor in pass-on readership, and I guess you have to allow for those who don’t read,” says Sims.

Here an interesting point is raised. After 400 years of colonialism, apartheid and oppression, we exist in a fractured society. Literacy and writing are western imports barely 300 years old. Has a culture of reading been sufficiently cultivated to achieve equitable readership levels?

But we are talking about the MTV generation here, the vast majority of them being literate media consumers at the top end of the LSM scale. A more likely point is distribution – we do not have a commuter culture serviced by newsstands and kiosks, which really drive direct sales of printed media in other countries.

Yet this is not enough to justify such paltry youth magazine consumption amongst the South African 16 to 24 age demographic. The problem, realistically, lies in the type of magazine being produced rather than infrastructure and reading habits. Out of all the magazines surveyed for this article, none have a distinctly South African character, style or content, which may attribute to their luke-warm reception in the market place.

Y Magazine is the obvious exception. Although sometimes a bit nepotistic with regards to the promotion of its DJs and radio content, it is the dark horse in terms of South African market equity and overall growth potential. Y has a 97% black readership and an average pass-on rate of 18 people per each magazine sold.

Moreover the radio station, YFM, has a listenership of 1.6 million in Gauteng alone. If the station were to go national, the magazine would certainly ride its coat tails to greater penetration. It’s the sleeping giant, alright, but at this stage it is still selling less than 20 000 copies. What’s up with that?

‘I believe that magazines in the youth category fight most with share of pocket issues regarding what youth spend money on,” says Y brand manager Kim Thipe. ‘Youth magazines compete vehemently with products like mobile airtime, books, events, travel, transportation, etc. We need not measure the success of the sector based on population figures.”

So how does one access the broader market?

‘It’s really about content and what is relevant to the reader. Y Magazine has limitless potential. We are growing at a rapid rate and we will continue to monitor success, and position how we go forward based on the demand for the publication.”

Sibongile, a 22-year-old student shopping at Exclusive Books in the Zone concurs: ‘I buy Y Mag coz I live in Jozi where it is happening. The mag focuses on issues that interest me. I like house music and DJ culture. They also advertise stuff that is appealing to me. Like Levis, Puma and Stoned Cherry.”

SL is the other South African youth culture magazine – although laagered into a distinctly white readership. SL made its name via its commitment to local culture, journalistic integrity and youthful irreverence. It peaked in the late ’90s under the editorial direction of Kate Wilson, when it broke the 20 000 circulation barrier and even managed to regularly sell into the 25 000s.

Alas, as more international syndicated titles like GQ, Marie Claire and FHM entered the pit and started chasing quality local content, SL began to lose market share. Four years on one can barely recognise the book. Instead of lauding and representing the local culture that was its staple, the magazine has turned lately to mimicry of UK design aesthetics found in The Face, Dazed and Confused and ID.

Where the content was once entirely locally generated and relevant, they are now running syndicated Britney Spears interviews. The performance of SL has gone from bad to worse and the bleeding continues. In the last ABC cycle the magazine continued its circulation drain: from 17 177 to 15,183.

The SL example is indicative of a broader industry phenomenon: the sacrifice of relevant local content to cheaper, international syndications. The argument for international content is strong; it has a proven track record in other countries and therefore carries less risk with publishers and advertisers. Local content is more risky, with no proven track record.

But if a title manages to capture a distinctly South African youth context it will achieve awesome loyalty and brand equity. Which is why you will see the syndicated titles pushing local content (up to 70% in FHM). Necessarily syndicated titles are getting better at producing South African content, and are thus becoming more representative and eating up the defined market.

Many of these magazines, although not specifically marketed to the youth, have large youth readerships. Here we are talking about FHM, People, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Kick Off and SA Sports Illustrated. Interestingly, these generic adult mags have faired much better than the dedicated youth titles with regard to readership and circulation.

FHM‘s youth readership (ages 16 to 24) makes up 51,1% of their 90,814 circulation. This comes out at a whopping 46 314 copy sales, easily double what the dedicated youth magazines are selling. People manages to attract a youth readership of 260 000, 37.3% of their overall readership, and run a pull-out magazine called TeenAge. Other big hitters are Marie Claire, with a youth readership of 37%, bringing their tally to 142 000 readers aged between 16 and 24.

Yet it remains unlikely that an international title, or an adult mag, will really crack the local youth magazine market. In South Africa – and the trend is global – the majority of magazines exist for their advertisers, since it is they who drive and fund the industry. ‘Astute’ corporate ideology has long stifled the spirit of free speech and social editorial agendas. Who would want to advertise in a vehicle that takes risks with edgy content, courts controversy, and fails to respect the advertiser’s desire to use editorial space as added value?

With syndicated international content there are no ethics, egos or agendas to deal with. Just business. The integrity of a title’s content is often viewed as an impediment to its commercial success. One need look no further than the average contributors’ rates of most South African magazines to get the picture that content is not king.

So the dominant publishing ideology renders the youth magazine titles impotent as representational vehicles, and trapped in the 20 000s. And while these magazines slug it out for a sliver of the market, the broader South African youth remain largely untouched.

Additional research www.instantgrass.com

Andy Davis is former editor of SL and currently full-time freelancer and surfer.