CosmoGirl magazine is calling it quits in perhaps another sign that the economy cool.

Hearst Corp. which also is the publisher of Good Housekeeping and Esquire said it plans to consolidate CosmoGirl with Seventeen magazine, Hearst’s bigger-selling teen title. Hearst started CosmoGirl in 1999 as a spinoff of its women’s title Cosmopolitan. The magazine has a circulation of more than 1.4 million.

Magazines that cater to teenage girls are having a particularly rough go as young people spend more of their free time online. The magazine follows similar teen titles, including Teen People and ElleGirl in folding. Hearst said CosmoGirl will continue on the Internet as part of the company’s network of teen-focused Web sites. The teen-magazine market already has faced a shakeout. Time Inc.’s Teen People and Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.’s ELLEgirl closed their print versions in recent years but maintained a presence online.
Through the October issue, CosmoGirl’s ad pages are 15.5% lower than a year earlier, according to Mediaweek Monitor. Ad pages at Seventeen and Condé Nast’s Teen Vogue are off 8.8% and 5.8%, respectively. More titles are expected to face pressure to close as advertising dollars dry up, costs for paper rise, readers move online and economic conditions remain uncertain.

CosmoGirl, which plans to stop publishing after the December issue, is among several established magazines to shut down in the past year. Hearst this summer decided to fold housekeeping magazine Quick & Simple, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. Inc. discontinued Home magazine and Condé Nast Publications closed House & Garden and Golf for Women.