• by Michael Shields , July 8, 2004

Before Editor-in-Chief Linda Fears arrived at YM in March, the struggling teen title was suffering from employing too broad an editorial focus for a demographic that is defined by radical shifts in identity from year to year.

"We were trying to be all things to all teens," she says. "We had pages that catered to 12-year-olds and pages for 19-year-olds. They might as well be 10 and 20--they are that different."

So YMbegan asking readers what their ideal age is. They responded with 19, and thus Fears and her team decided to refocus the book's editorial on the upper end of the teen demographic, seeing a gap to be exploited between teen books and younger women's magazines.

YM's overhaul came to fruition last week with the release of the August issue, featuring Lindsay Lohan on the cover. In the upper right-hand corner of the cover, there is a small headline reading, "Wow, the New YM!"

Fears had better hope that readers are wowed. Through May of this year, pages are down 41.3 percent for the year. Effective this month, YM's rate base has been sliced sharply from 2 million to 1.5 million, the second cut in the last year and a half.

Fears acknowledges that the next few months will likely involve a turnover period, as some younger readers may drop out and older fans may take time to discover the revamped book. "That's exactly why we lowered our rate base," she says. "We think it is better to be conservative at this point."

In the meantime, Fears says that advertisers are buying into the new editorial focus. "They have been very responsive," she says. "They agree with us that there is this niche."

A niche that Fears believes her competitors don't serve--something she is quite frank about, despite a teen market that has only grown more crowded in recent years, with leaders Seventeen and Teen People being challenged by CosmoGirl, Teen Vogue, and others.

"When they are 12 they read Seventeen," says Fears of teen girls. "Seventeenis hampered by their name. Teens are very label-conscious. They don't want to be called teens, and don't want to be called girls. We don't label them at all."

She believes that teen books are less relevant to older, college-age girls. "All these skew towards 15-year-olds. CosmoGirl, Teen People are all aiming younger. There are all giggly."

YM's August issue reflects its newfound maturity. There is more fashion coverage, with "higher-caliber models," says Fears. There will be less editorial about kissing and cute boys, and more about relationships.

Fears has also added regular pages on health, plus coverage of "Cool Athletes" (August's issue features a girl who is a coxswain on a boy's high school crew team). Also included this month is a serious feature on gambling addiction among young women.

Yet regardless of all the change, YM's editorial tone isn't all that different. "YMhas always been irreverent," Fears says. "Its voice is very 'of the moment.' It's a very distinct voice."