Magazines: Are they still an influential media?

About Me--my magazine "expertise":

I am a recovered magazine-holic.  I kept subscriptions to several--Woman's Day,Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, Reader's Digest, Redbook, Parents, Family Circle and frequently purchased others: Country Living, Backyard Living, PC Magazine, Bride, Glamour, Seventeen, Guideposts, Mother Earth News, Newsweek, Organic Gardening, Time, US News & World Report, National Geographic, Writer's Digest and several craft magazines--quilting, crocheting, etc., and that is not the end of the list. I have had collections that I have read from cover to cover, more than one time.

Realizing this and looking at this project, I decided to see if I could determine the level of influence these magazines are having on the lives of readers today, are they effective, cost effective, how the print forms compare to online versions.

As a writer, I like to write to convince as well as to inform. When I read magazines, that is what I look for, but I am wondering if have I purchased a little information scattered through an advertising collection.

I have heard comments about the influence of radio, television and music on society so many times that it is tempting to believe that those are the only influential types of media available or the only types that have a lot of influence.

When I walk through grocery stores, or stores like Wal-Mart or Fred Myers and look at the rows of magazines, I think people forget the importance of magazines.  We are so used to TV, radio and other forms of media it is easy to forget the role of magazines--their availability at times when radio and TV are not available or are inappropriate.

Magazines are still very influential.

That's my opinion, but I stopped at a store today and purchased a few just to see if my opinion had merit. I believe it does.

From my own listed collection it is clear that there are magazines for just about every craft, magazines for wines, food, health and fitness, every sport, for men, women, parents,families, teachers, photographers, animal lovers, brides (I didn't see one for grooms--I wonder what that means?), children, teenagers, senior citizens, car enthusiasts, fishermen, cattlemen, cowboys, (even cowboys and Indians), racing enthusiasts, crosswords and games, horoscopes, relationships, recipes, how-to, travel--and there were more.

I decided to purchase Cowboys & Indians, Women's Health, Men's Health, Parent & Child, and another I had never heard of, "Marie Claire."

Just flipping through the pages one thing is immediately clear--these are major ad opportunities for everybody! At least six articles were "announced" on the cover of each magazine--seven or more on some of them.

After turning nearly 50 pages of "Marie Claire" I finally got to one story, "Big girl in a skinny world." (It was page 89.) At least one of every two pages prior to that page was an ad or contained an ad for something from clothes to makeup, jewelry, trips, hair products and beyond.

In Women's Health, the items that exist in every issue begin on page 12, however, no real "stories" begin until page 41. The ads throughout the magazine are numerous.

Interestingly, Men's Health found a way to get something other than ads in by page 17. There also actually seemed to be more articles of substance in this magazine. Was it possible that men were actually getting more information in their magazine? I would have to investigate.

Parent & Child was a little different--possibly because it is a Scholastic magazine. Information began on page 10, and while there were ads, they were a different kind of ad. Perhaps I would call them more "sensible" ads aimed at "sensible" parents. ("Marie Claire" had ads that seemed to be aimed at women who just had money to spend.)

There was something about that Cowboys and Indians magazine that was a bit different, and it wasn't just Noah Wyle on the cover. Yes, there were ads, but there were also lengthy articles. The ads also were about things that were more "interesting" somehow.

That is another thing I will have to investigate---next time.