• by Larry Dobrow , June 17, 2003

Thinking about advertising in a women's magazine? Be careful, because nearly 23 percent of the readers of such titles are 17 or younger.

That was among the more surprising findings in a new study by Simmons Market Research Bureau, a research consultancy that is attempting to provide insight into the readership and media-consumption behavior of individuals 12 and older. The finding was culled from the company's new 12+ Database, which purports to be the only national study that simultaneously measures media-usage behaviors of teens and adults within the same households.

According to the study, 12- to 17-year-olds comprise 22.9% of the readership of women's magazines. Sports publications ranked second within that age group (19%), followed by fashion/beauty/grooming magazines (18%), automotive titles (17.6%), special appeal pubs (13.4%), men's mags (12.7%), fishing/hunting/outdoor recreation titles (11.7%), general-appeal pubs (9.1%) and newsweeklies (7.9%).

Simmons president Chris Wilson cautioned advertisers to take a closer look at the data on a title-by-title basis, but noted that several general trends could be gleaned from the results. "For instance, tobacco and liquor advertisers - there are certain categories [of magazines] that are more or less safe for them," he notes.

Wilson hopes that marketers will use his company's data in order to make better decisions about the magazines they support. "You want the right eyeballs, both in terms of quality and quantity," he says. "There's a ton of demand within the marketplace for this kind of information, and we think we've done the best job to date of compiling it."

Every year, Simmons surveys more than 37,000 people to produce its National Consumer, Teens, Kids and Hispanic studies. Each report provides individual and household information on approximately 8,000 brands in more than 460 data categories.