CosmoGirl
Hearst's teen spin-off of Cosmopolitan, the glossy with the exclamation point that lived in school bags from 1999 to 2008. A 26-year-old fashion editor dreamed it up in 48 hours, it grew to a circulation of 1.25 million, and when it folded, subscribers got Seventeen in the mail instead.
CosmoGIRL! was announced by Hearst Magazines in June 1999 and reached newsstands on June 29, with a $2.99 cover price, a newsstand distribution of 850,000 and three test issues planned for the year. It was aimed at girls aged 12 to 17, and Hearst's president, Cathleen Black, explained the business case plainly: "Teenagers in the United States either spent or encouraged their parents to spend nearly $125 billion last year."
The magazine was the idea of Atoosa Rubenstein, a senior fashion editor at Cosmopolitan. Black had asked her to come up with a concept for a new title, and 48 hours later Rubenstein presented CosmoGIRL! and was offered the editor's chair, which at 26 made her the youngest editor-in-chief in Hearst's history. For the cover mock-up she scrawled the word "Girl!" in fuchsia lipstick. Under her, circulation reached 1.25 million. Each issue had a celebrity cover interview and shoot, beauty and fashion sections, a Body & Soul section on health, and in 2002 the magazine launched Project 2024, named for the year its youngest readers would turn 35 and be old enough to run for president, with backers including Senator Hillary Clinton and Michael Kors. When Hearst bought Seventeen in May 2003, it moved Rubenstein over to run it.
The last editor was Susan Schulz, who had joined shortly after the launch. In October 2008, Hearst announced that the December issue would be the last. Ad pages had been declining, and the New York Times blamed "competition from the Web and celebrity weeklies." Subscribers were switched to Seventeen; Schulz moved to special projects. The British edition had closed in June 2007, and rivals Elle Girl and Teen People had already folded. The website lived on until mid-2010, when it was merged into Seventeen's.
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