Tearaway Magazine

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Tearaway Magazine was founded in 1986 by John and Vicki Francis, and is a free youth lifestyle magazine aimed at teenagers and young adults in New Zealand. John Francis is the managing director and executive editor. Tearaway is advertised as being "the voice of New Zealand youth" and is "speaking to the head and the heart, not just the hormones". Published in Wanganui, Tearaway has a per issue circulation of between 45,000 and 55,000 nationally and is the longest-running, largest-distribution publication in New Zealand aimed at the youth market.

Tearaway’s main distribution is through high schools to create a special relationship as the magazine contains relevant material on real-life that can be helpful in the classroom as well as the other publication Teacher Resource for the teachers. It is also available through selected street outlets such as video stores and public libraries. The magazine is targeted at primarily 13 to 19-year-olds and prides itself on taking youth seriously by covering entertainment, social and global issues and careers, connecting at a very personal level while having a sense of fun. Recently Tearaway has had a make over with the change of size and stock to a lightweight gloss, which is completely different from the past 19 years for the newsprint tabloid publication.

Tearaway is written almost entirely by young people. Anyone can submit an article to create a forum on their issues. The magazine has informal language. There is a core editorial team, known as YETI (Youth Editorial Team Incorporated). Each year Tearaway invites applications from students from around New Zealand, to join the YETI crew.

The name of the magazine was chosen because in New Zealand slang a "tearaway" is a bit of a rebel, which was thought to describe the magazine's readers. In addition, the founders intended to 'tear away’ from the style and attitude that most other publications had towards teenagers – to find new ways of presenting the stories of young people.