Then And Now

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Feb, 2001 by Bob Moseley

A selection from the February 1991 Folio:, plus an update.

Prom Night: Big Business Sometimes an annual can go a long way. Your Prom, developed to help teens get through the emotional and exciting prom experience, has become a promotional dream for its staff, as well as an educational resource for high-school students.

The magazine's second issue won't appear until this spring, but that doesn't mean its staff hasn't been busy. Last month they helped a high school with its prom fashion show. Staffers have also become TV consultants and fund-raisers.

Impressive circulation and advertiser response left the title profitable after its first issue, paving the way for ancillary activities. About 260,000 copies of the premier issue were sold--a 65 percent sell-through.

But Your Prom won't have this teen market all to itself for long. Scholastic Inc. plans to launch a prom annual in 1992.

Remember when teens used to drive their prom dates in the family car? Proms may have changed, but the prom business continues to thrive. Your Prom, launched by Cahners and purchased by Primedia Inc. (FOLIO: 's parent company) in 1996, remains a once-a-year, newsstand-only publication (cover price, $3.99) that claims a total readership of six million. Editor in chief Antonia van der Meer says each issue is shared by 11 females and five males.

While Your Prom was the pioneer in the category, it doesn't have the big dance ail to itself. YM Special Prom, published by Gruner+Jahr, comes out yearly, and Seventeen, another Primedia title, does a prom issue in March that is one of its biggest sellers. Scholastic Inc. never followed through on its plans to launch a prom annual.

"Proms have become big business with teens spending over $2 billion a year," van der Meer says. "We know the average couple spends over $1,000 on the dress, limo, corsages and everything. It's an impressionable audience. They're looking for how to find a dress, help with their hair and make-up, and suggestions for parties afterward.

Your Prom has expanded into the event business, hosting a Mall of America fashion show, and it now has a Web site (yourprom.com).