Is there a place for Cosmopolitan magazine in New Zealand any more?

"Ten things women with great skin do", "The science of orgasms" and a guide to modern dating terms - all coverlines the very first edition of Australian Cosmopolitan magazine screams at us from New Zealand newsstands.

But in a day with fast-moving internet trends, access to every bit of information, and our tiny attention spans - can a 132-page glossy women's lifestyle magazine cut through the noise?

Australian businesswoman Katarina Kroslakova, head of independent publishing house KK Press, thinks it can.

Cosmopolitan started life in the US in 1886, but became the version we know, aimed at "single, modern women" in the 1960s under the guidance of celebrated feminist Helen Gurley Brown.

After a 45-year run in Australia the magazine closed in 2018 after it was deemed "commercially unviable" by owner Bauer Media. The German family-owned publishing company axed rows of lifestyle magazines in Australia and New Zealand, including Cleo, Cosmo, Grazia and InStyle prior to Covid, then went on to cull many more during the Covid years (including the company's entire New Zealand arm).

Kroslakova, who says she likes to be "disruptive", launched T magazine - the New York Times style magazine - in Australia in 2021 in collaboration with Hearst Magazines International.

"I know that seems like madness and my financial planner and my accountant at the time were like, 'Um, are you not reading the media landscape at the moment?'

"And I'm like, I am, which is exactly why we're gonna do this."

Kroslakova says there were highly skilled creative writers and artists who needed work, and plenty of advertisers wanting to spend cash.

"This is like a really cynical way of looking at it, but you actually have all these different people who still needed magazines… I thought … I have an opportunity to do something really different, really fabulous."

When Cosmo was staging its comeback from a "six-year hiatus" (as they put it) in Australia, Kroslakova got the call to kick start the magazine. She signed up Tessa Ogle as editor-in-chief and they are now four issues in. The plan was always to hit New Zealand, and the launch issue with 'The Veronica's at 40' on the cover dropped this week. A version of Cosmo is already available in about 40 different countries.

The magazine is aimed at women aged 18-32, but early data suggests readers skew older. It features all the classic elements - a sealed section to rip open, a sexy centrefold to unfold, quizzes like "what's your manifestation style?"

Twenty-year-old Aucklander Isla shared the first issue of the magazine with her 50-year-old mum who immediately felt a lot of the content was "a nod to nostalgia".

But Isla, an international relations student who grew up reading Dolly magazine aged 11 and 12, says no one in her age group would get that.

Isla says she thought the reincarnated Cosmo would be a more "experimental".

While she thought the launch issue was "plain" and "boring", she did lap up the longer reads about dating with ADHD and "why we need to talk about male friendships" (once her TikTok attention span could focus on the printed word). She says the spicy sealed section still hits the spot, despite the saturation of sex advice on the internet.

"When you're a teenager, these [topics unpacked in Cosmo] are still the biggest things on your mind," she says.

"You can't go and ask your mum 'How am I going to give a great blow job?'. At least in a magazine it's going to be censored. When you search up 'how to give a blow job' online... you get extreme pornography, so wouldn't you rather get something that's written by women, for women?"

Annie, 17, agreed ripping open the sealed section was a highlight: "I thought that was a really fun thing ... a lot of it I did not know.

"...In terms of learning about sexual stuff you don't really get much of that stuff online so I think a magazine would be a cool way to do that."

However, Annie, who likes to flip through her mum's old music magazines, added, "the cover [of Cosmo] didn't really pull me in".

Ogle, Cosmo's optimistic editor-in-chief, is determined that there are some things digital media can't snatch away from print.

"There's nothing like holding a magazine... it's immersive and curated and it's also a break from the screens. I think people are really craving that," she says from the Sydney office.

"Print allows for this different level of depth and it's... something to sit with and return to and hopefully collect... I've still got stacks of magazines from back in the day... I collected them and had them under my bed and would redo quizzes with friends."

Ogle was at the tail end of the original Cosmo generation in Australia.

"I would buy it and then my mum would be like, 'you can read it, but you can't read the sealed section'. I'd be like in my room under my doona just ripping it so quietly...

"I was of that generation that was like just on the cusp of the internet generation. So the sealed section was absolutely a way that I learned about sex... I'm also gay, so... learning about queer sex was definitely not something that I had access to."

Ogle reckons young people want to turn down social media noise, they are aware of its impacts on their mental health, and they want to have a more considered approach to screen time.

She says the experience and expertise of the freelance writers they use across style, beauty, lifestyle and entertainment ensures the magazine feels "fresh and relevant and speaks to current social trends, speaks to the challenges that this current generation is experiencing".

Rosa, 19, who read the magazine when it arrived in NZ this week, backed up Ogle's expectations.

"I like having the information in print because it means I am off my phone and it means what I am reading in my hands is trustworthy," she said, "because there's always a doubt in my mind that what I am reading online is trusthworthy."

Dr Rosemary Overell, a media lecturer at the University of Otago, agrees New Zealanders are turning to hard copy press as an alternative to scrolling. But she says there is nothing new about the latest iteration of Cosmopolitan.

"It really is the same sort of stuff that was in there 20 years ago.

"Having a sealed section is almost a cute, novelty thing rather than giving women some sort of secret info they may not have had before access to the web... it's not exactly ground-breaking women's lifestyle journalism."

Could Cosmo kickstart the return to rows and rows of glossy magazines on New Zealand newsstands?

Kroslakova says she is in talks with Hearst to bring back two more familiar titles - but she can not say which yet.

Overell says Kiwis could be here for it.

"Even with Gen Z, there's a push-back towards the screen and for in-real-life, tactile experiences… which could bring back the magazine.

"In a world where all of our lives are screens there could be this kick back for something held."