Mr. Magazine

The Increasing Relevance of Magazines was the title of Rebecca McPheters, president of McPheters & Company at the Custom Publishing Council (CPC) meeting this morning at The Hearst Tower in NYC. Yes, you read that right, her presentation title was indeed talking about the increasing relevance of magazines in 2008. In an industry surrounded by doom and gloom it seems to me that the positive message is so often overlooked by the same folks who work and cover our own industry. It was so refreshing to hear Rebecca say “The search for newness must not be allowed to eclipse the proven value of that which is less new.” All what I can say to that is Amen!
In addition to that Rebecca pointed out that “While most people know that magazine reading strongly correlates with education and affluence, few realize that younger adults spend more time reading magazines — and read more magazines — than those who are older.” She sites the MRI Spring 2008 research showing that young adults age 18 – 24 read an average of 7.2 magazines compared to the 35+ age group that reads 6.0 magazines.
One more interesting factoid she presented is from Media Guru Ed Papazian who estimates that the ad avoidance factor for internet advertising is at a staggering 75% compared with 30% for magazines.
The meeting started with a presentation on the changing demographic landscape of America by Ken Gronbach author of The Age Curve: How to Profit from the Coming Demographics Storm, the audience and technology by Sarah Rotmann Epps, analyst, eMedia, Forrester Research and the global brand by Don Diforio, senior vice president, Millward Brown.
The Pearl’s of wisdom were preceded last night by the 5th annual prestigious Pearl Awards at the Rainbow Room in NYC. Advertising Age’s editor Jonah Bloom and yours truly were the presenters. To read all about the awards and see the list of the winners click here.