Hearst announced today that CosmoGIRL! is folding; its last issue will be this December.

Even though it is being consolidated with Seventeen magazine, CosmoGIRL! defined much of the bedtime reading of my youth, and I’m sad to see it — and print in general — crumble with falling ad sales. In particular, CG!’s end hits a heartstring because I’ve been to the offices. I’ve met and corresponded with editors. It’s a funny feeling to know that senior-level people who have given me career advice are now cleaning out their desks and wondering about job security.

First ElleGirl, now CosmoGIRL! — teen mags are the first market to go because we’re the internet generation. There’s something wonderful about receiving a magazine in the mail, flipping through the sleek pages, smelling the perfume samples… it’s an experience that can’t be simulated on my laptop. But while I may have (have had?) career aspirations to freelance for magazines since the age of 5, I am every bit as guilty of letting my subscriptions dwindle off, especially when I can find everything online for FREE. I met several editors this summer who told me “print is here to stay.” I’m not saying it’s going to ever disappearing entirely, but I’ll go so far as to say that in time, having magazine subscriptions arrive in the mail will be as obsolete as deliveries of fresh milk for generations past.

For now, it’s teen mags that are hit the hardest. But what happens when this generation becomes the Glamour/Cosmopolitan/Vogue target demographic?

My hope is that as print expires, publishers will prioritize their web counterparts. ElleGirl kept its website; CG!’s keeping its website, which goes to show that’s the sector that’s actually making money — far from print’s goal of just staying afloat. Mags have tried to hold on for as long as possible and as a result, they’ve spent too much energy trying to salvage print and too little time building on the web.

For so long, content written for the web has been highly undervalued and underpaid. It’s sort of a catch-22 because currently, freelancing for print publications still pays significantly better than writing for the web, (unless you’re turning your own profits). But if print is no longer churning out revenue and everything is “going to the web,” the writers are supposed to follow. Yet where do you start writing for the web when nobody wants to pay you for it? So many sites solicit unpaid writers and bloggers, but who can make a lucrative career off hoping that underpaid web writing will eventually be rewarded? And still, web clips still aren’t recognized with the same legitimacy as print clips. Lose-lose.

New Halloween costume: I am dressing up as a newspaper with bloodstains and walking around stabbing myself repeatedly. Will high five any media geek who catches on. (Though um, everyone should.)