Condé Nast to pull Teen Vogue print-edition following restructuring

London - It is the era of an for print magazines, as leading publisher Condé Nast is set to fold Teen Vogue's quarterly print edition and reduce the frequency of publication of other key titles such as Glamour, GQ and Allure. The announcement comes after an internal restructuring, as Condé Nast aims to establish itself as a leading digital publisher in the changing landscape.

The company is set to cut approximately 80 roles across the board as budgets across numerous departments are also expected to get cut. Media reports indicate that titles set to reduce the number of print editions include GQ, Glamour, Allure and Architectural Digest, which will run 11 issues per year as well as Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler and W, down from 11 to 10 issues and 10 to 8 issues respectively.

Teen Vogue to become a digital-only publication

Monthly titles, including Vanity Fair, Vogue, Wired and The New Yorker, which publishes weekly editions, will not be affected. The decision to fold Teen Vogue's print edition comes a year after Condé Nast announced it was set to scale back Teen Vogue's print editions to a quarterly format. However, Condé Nast maintains that it will continue to invest in the Teen Vogue brand to ensure it becomes a successful digital magazine.

“We are aggressively investing in the brand and all of its consumer touchpoints including events like the upcoming inaugural Teen Vogue Summit next month in Los Angeles," said the company in a statement. “As audiences continue to evolve around content consumption, we will continue to modernize and calibrate how, where and when we produce and distribute our content to be in sync with the cultural moments and platforms most important to our audiences."

Condé Nast may still publish special print editions of Teen Vogue in the future. The folding of Teen Vogue's print edition marks the physical end of Vogue's sister-magazine. Launched in 2003, the glossy magazine is said to have been a favourite of Anna Wintour, Vogue’s editor in chief and Condé Nast’s artistic director. Over the years the publication has struggled to connect with its target audience, but during the American presidential election the magazine emerged as one of the key, critical platforms for Millennials and Gen-Z to discuss political issues, address a diverse number of issues.

Its digital platform continues to draw in millions of unique visitors every month, with Teen Vogue's average monthly unique visitor numbers for the year reaching 8.27 million last month according to ComScore. Teen Vogue's move to an online-only identity comes as Condé Nast begins to launch new, digital-only titles. Some exist under the umbrella of its current brands, but others are standalone platforms. For example, Condé Nast digital editorial director, Philip Picardi, launched Them last month, a digital publication dedicated to LGBTQ issues, which Condé Nast aims to use as a template for developing additional, lower-cost, digital-only platforms.

“Over the past year, we’ve been reimagining what a title looks like to better reflect today’s culture and how audiences are interacting with content,” said Condé Nast artistic director and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour to Business of Fashion last month. “As we launched new titles like The Hive [at Vanity Fair] and Healthyish [at Bon Appétit], or rethought existing ones like Teen Vogue and Allure, we’ve seen tremendous response.”

Photos:Teen Vougue, Conde Nast