CoverAwards Exclusive: J-14's New Editor Molly MacDermot on Why "Girls Love J-14 Magazine"
CoverAwards spoke exclusively with J-14 Magazine’s new Editor in Chief Molly MacDermot, who continues to oversee M Magazine as EIC as well. Molly provides insight into her plans for J-14, the turbulent teen market and of course, High School Musical.
What are your plans for J-14?
J-14 is one of those gems on the rack — teen girls really do love it. It’s a guilty pleasure that just makes them happy. It’s also been the No. 1 teen entertainment magazine for the last 10 years, and my plans are to continue to maintain its success with fresh new ideas. We’re going to double up the fun and authority that they’ve always loved and adapt to the changes in the market. The teen girl looks at her teen magazine differently now that she’s got In Touch and Life & Style on the coffee table. So the rapid-pace (both in art and editorial) that the reader has learned to expect from the weeklies will be brought up a few more notches in J-14.
What differentiates J-14 from M, as well as the other teen titles?
J-14 has its own personality — a little more edge, ego, urgency. It also skews older than its sister publications like M.
How concerned are you about the turbulence in the teen market?
In times of trouble, people tend to crave even more entertainment, escapes. The demise of CosmoGirl, most recently, is very sad because it was a great magazine….but comparing J-14 to CG is very ‘apples and oranges.’ We did very different things from each other. The one image cover and small percentage of entertainment in a book, like CG, is a hard sell. From the very beginning at Bauer, we always treated teen magazines like an extension of the teen girl’s life…whether it’s our fast, snappy copy that mirrors their own writing on Facebook, or the celebration of high-energy visuals that the reader is drawn to on MTV, Bauer’s teen titles (I’ve been at M, Twist, now J-14, AstroGirl, QuizFest) have always thought out of the traditional magazine box. That’s why they do well.
What’s the biggest trend you see happening in the teen market?
Linear thinking. The reader is this close to being a star herself. The world of celebrity is so much more relatable than in the past, less of a disconnect between star and reader (we see pictures all the time of the stars doing the things the teens do, i.e., tripping over their high heels or buying coffee) so the teens really feel like BFFs with Selena and Miley. It’s important to connect the two, the star and the reader. The grand canyon gap between stars and real people has closed in, and J-14 celebrates that.
On the content side, do you see the HSM stars moving back to the covers of the teen titles vs. the Jonas Brothers?
Was it 42 million for HSM3 this weekend? Not bad. We’ve got the HSM3 crew on our covers now and will continue to run what is popular. Zac, Ashley, the Jonas Bros…they speak to the girls right now. But we are also sensitive to the ever-changing tastes. The comments on our website and daily/hourly blogs from readers help us pinpoint what the girls are thinking/feeling at this very moment. I’d say the web has really helped us put out an even more relatable magazine.
Anything else you would like to add?
No matter how crazy the world gets, teen girls have an idealism and positivity that is truly wonderful. It’s an honor to edit a magazine for them.
(Editor’s Note: Molly you rock and I miss working with you! )
