Elle Girl, Celebrity Living Among the Spinoffs That Spun Out

Magazine companies appear to be doing spring cleaning, and spinoff titles are the first ones to be tossed out.

Elle Girl, a version of Elle for teens, will cease publication with its July issue, publisher Hachette Filipacchi Media announced yesterday.

It joins three American Media Inc. titles that are being put out to pasture, the biggest of which is Celebrity Living Weekly, essentially a more star-friendly version of AMI's Star.

The Spanish-language Shape en Español and MPH, a car magazine that was less than a year old, are also being shuttered, AMI said yesterday.

AMI is also moving the National Enquirer office from New York back to its former headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla., and reinstating its former editor David Perel, PDN sister publication Mediaweek reports.

The latest magazine closures follow the announcement last week that Condé Nast is closing Cargo, the men's version of women's shopping magazine Lucky.

The recently departed magazines appear to be the victim of strong competition and a weak advertising market.

In each case, the magazine companies said they would try to find jobs in-house for the dozens of staffers who are out of work.

Elle Girl, which launched in 2001, had steadily increased its circulation and was selling about 600,000 copies, according to its most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations report. It was competing with other big-name titles for young women including Seventeen, Teen People, CosmoGIRL! and Teen Vogue.

Hachette will continue to operate the Ellegirl.com web site and will publish two special issues of Elle Girl next year using the staff that now publishes Elle Accessories, Mediaweek reports.

Elle Girl's May masthead lists two photo staffers: photo/bookings editor Mariel Maymi and photo/bookings assistant Christina Han. The magazine's art director was Danny Fisher.

Celebrity Living Weekly was a less established title that never seemed to gain traction in the celebrity magazine category. It launched last April in a market crowded with competitors like People, US Weekly, In Touch and Life & Style, as well as AMI's Star.

Celebrity Living Weekly's photo director was Maria DiGioia, its photo editor was Jennifer Lombardo and its art director was Lydia Paniccia, according to a recent masthead.

Another recent effort to launch a new entertainment-focused weekly, Gemstar-TV Guide's Inside TV, lasted just a few months before folding in November.

In other magazine news, The New York Post reports today that the U.S. arm of Dennis Publishing is for sale. Dennis's titles include Maxim, FMH, Stuff and The Week.

Related stories

• Conde Nast Jettisons Cargo


• Mediaweek: AMI Shutters Three Titles; Moves National Enquirer Back to Florida With Perel as EIC


• Mediaweek: Hachette Folds Elle Girl Mag; Keeps Web Site Alive