READING ? AND WATCHING: wealthier Americans are reading more magazines more often than ever. The 30-year-old survey measures the top quarter of Americans, with a current household income floor of $85,000, giving the survey's subscribers (among them, 119 magazines) an encyclopedia-like tome on what the affluent are reading, watching, and buying. [...]
"In this day and age, all we hear about is doom and gloom, ad pages down and circulation being clobbered, and we only hear that the Internet is going to save the world," [survey head Mitch Lurin] said. "But our data are saying that magazines are healthier than they've ever been."
Which, of course, raises the question that if magazines are healthier than ever, why are publishers flocking to launch, update, reconfigure, expand, redesign, or otherwise change their Web sites ? and also selling them off or closing them? [...]
This year, the magazines with the biggest gains in overall average issue audience ? a composite figure suggesting how many eyeballs a magazine advertiser can expect to reach in print ? were People, House & Garden, Time, Sports Illustrated, and Southern Living
