Robin Parker, Media Week, 10 August 2006, 2:10pm

Emap closes second teen magazine

Emap is to close its weekly teenage magazine Sneak after four years, blaming falling sales on the migration of its target audience online.

Like many magazines in the troubled sector, the weekly title posted double-digit year-on-year losses - of 18.3% - in the July to December 2005 ABCs, a pattern expected to continue in the January to June figures, published next week.
Sneak is the second teenage magazine Emap has closed this year, after folding Smash Hits in February and moving editor Lara Palamoudian onto Sneak. The Smash Hits brand continues online, on radio and on TV.
Emap said it had entered consultation on Sneak's mobile platform and its MySpace webpage but that developing the brand onto digital platforms was not a priority.
Sneak sold 74,299 copies a week, placing it sixth in the market after Smash Hits' closure. At its peak in 2003, it sold more than 100,000 copies.
Emap will continue to publish market-leader Bliss, now its only teenage magazine.