Magazines have been hit with much bad news over the last several years. But several myths are just plain wrong, says Ann Moore, chairman and chief executive officer of Time Inc.
One of the
biggest is that young readers are leaving magazines for all new digital platforms. This is not true. Mocking Congressman Joe Wilson’s outburst at a President’s Obama speech last year,
Moore says: “You lie!â€
She says magazine readership overall is actually up over 4% between 2004 and 2009, and the 44.4 median age of magazines is younger than primetime viewing
and of the U.S. population as a whole.
Moore notes that 18-34 readership has grown and that 75% of all teens reads magazines. Also, young readers in 2009 were found to read more than their
parents.
One final example that magazines aren’t dying: One big issue at People Magazine pulled in 45 million people versus 27.7 million viewers for the finale of “American
Idol.â€
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