 Tiger Beat magazine, first issue | |
| Categories | Teen, celebrity |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Monthly |
| First issue | September 1965 |
| Final issue | Winter 2019 |
| Company | Tiger Beat Media, Inc. |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | California |
| Language | English |
| ISSN | 0040-7380 |
Tiger Beat was an Americanteenfan magazine published by The Laufer Company and marketed primarily toadolescent girls. The magazine had a paper edition that was sold at stores until December 2018, and afterward was published exclusively online until 2021.
Tiger Beat was founded in September 1965[1][2] by Charles "Chuck" Laufer, his brother Ira Laufer, and television producer and hostLloyd Thaxton.[3] The magazine featuredteen idolgossip and carried articles onmovies,music andfashion.[4] Charles Laufer described the magazine's content as "guys in their 20s singing 'La La' songs to 13-year-old girls."[5]
A distinctive element ofTiger Beat was its covers, which featured cut-and-pastecollaged photos – primarilyhead shots – of current teen idols. For the first twelve issues, Thaxton's face appeared at the top corner of the cover (at first the magazine was titledLloyd Thaxton's Tiger Beat), and he also contributed a column.[6] After 2016, the magazine cover featured a single image of a celebrity.[7]
During the 1960s, The Laufer Company leveraged theteen market dominated byTiger Beat with similar magazines, includingFaVE andMonkee Spectacular.[8] In 1998,Tiger Beat was sold by publisherSterling/MacFadden toPrimedia, which in 2003 sold the magazine to Scott Laufer, the son of magazine founder Charles Laufer.[9] Until 2014, Laufer also produced the similar teen magazineBop.[10][11] After 2015,Tiger Beat was published byLos Angeles–based Tiger Beat Media, Inc.[12][13]
Jude Doyle founded theblog Tiger Beatdown (a punning reference toTiger Beat) in 2008. It concluded in 2013.[14][15][16]
