Sassy decides to grow up

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, March 15, 1995 by Jenna Schnuer

Although Sassy is back and going after an older crowd, two newcomers to the teen-magazine dance appear to have been dumped by their suitors.

Both Time Inc. Ventures and Marvel Entertainment officially say their respective tides, Mouth2Mouth and Quake, are on hiatus. But industry observers believe neither is likely to return. Marvel Family Publishing, the newly named division incorporating Welsh Publishing, is concentrating its efforts on tides based on Marvel and other licensed characters, such as Spiderman and Casper the Friendly Ghost. As for Mouth2Mouth, a Time Inc. source says the title's 50:50 male:female demographic split made it difficult to sell to advertisers. (The concept may reappear in a different medium, perhaps television.)

Meanwhile, Petersen Publishing's first issue of Sassy hit the newsstands during the last week of January. Put together by 'Teen staffers doing double duty, the tide carried 35 ad pages and offered a rate-base of 700,000. Publisher Ira Garey says Sassy will publish 10 issues this year, and that a redesign is planned for August.

Will it work?

But industry insiders foresee problems with Sassy's pursuit of the 15- to 20-year-old crowd, rather than the all-teen set targeted under former owner Lang Communications. Circulation could prove sticky, says magazine consultant John Klingel, noting that 40 percent of 18- to 20-year-olds don't subscribe to magazines.

Mademoiselle editor in chief Elizabeth Crow points to the difficulties of trying to convince former Sassy readers that the magazine they outgrew is once again right for them. There's also the challenge of satisfying both college students and same-age readers who aren't in school.

"Sassy was an adorable magazine," says Crow. "It had a voice and a personality and a reader-friendliness." Whether or not the title can regain that voice "depends a lot on what Tommi has to offer."

Tommi is new Sassy editor and former Disney Adventures editor Tommi Lewis, whose involvement with the relaunch issue was minimal. "Not to be apologetic," Lewis says, anticipating the critics, "but this issue was basically pulled together to let the world know Sassy was still in business."