Affluent people spend more time reading magazines. Is that a surprise?. A new survey just out here seems to think it is. The survey reported that the top quarter of American households –that is families with an income of $85,000 (around 50,000 pounds) a year or more are reading more magazines than ever before An increase of 4 per cent over last year.
The average number of publications read increased from 6.2 to 6.9 while the average number of issues read increased about 12 per cent. Although the figures are not overwhelming industry experts say they are encouraging.
According to the study, entitled the Mendelsohn Affluent Survey, the Top Ten publications to show the biggest increase among the affluent this year were People, House & Garden, Time, Sports Illustrated, Southern Living, National Geographic. Food & Wine, Automobile Magazine, US Weekly and Cooking Light,
One of the surprises: Automobile, which is published by Primedia, beat out such magazines as Vogue, Robb Report and Forbes, which are primarily aimed at the ultra wealthy. Most of the magazines in the Top Ten list are medium priced.
Nevertheless at a time when many publications in the US, notably newspapers, are experiencing declines in circulation and profits it's the first upbeat news for the publishing industry for some time.
Altogether, according to the study, there are more than 25 million households in the United States that can be described as “affluent”
That, it’s conceded, is a very important target for publishers and advertisers. Its also one reason why so many magazines these days are publishing what they call “luxury” editions. House & Garden, No 2 on the list and one of Conde Nast's top titles, is for example publishing not one but two “luxury” editions this year
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