"Reader's Digest" More Than You Think

The first-ever published magazine lasted three months. Today this industry is bigger than ever before. In 1741 the first American magazine was published out of Philadelphia by Andrew Bradford. The original content of the magazines surrounded fun writing. These topics included comedy and fictional stories, opinions in politics, literature, music, and celebrities.

These topics remain relevant today in modern magazines. There are more general types of magazines like, Time Magazines and People Magazines which will stay relevant forever. Whereas, the magazines that focus on specific topics like National Geographic, whose purpose is to use “the power of science, exploration, education, and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world.” Other famous magazines that write for targetted audiences include Sports Illustrated for sports fans or Vogue for those who are interested in the fashion industry. These specific magazines hold a competitive edge as they attract their specific demographics.

Like most things in society, magazines have progressed over the years. Magazines are constantly adapting to the culture around them. Magazines help push the culture in specific directions. But one big adjustment that happened with these article establishments was Muckraking. Muckraking is when writers search for and real scandals and corruption. In the late 1800s, an investigative reporter wrote of a scandal involving and exposing the abuse in the massive oil business. This style of scandal writing was a huge hit and soon became a common style of writing. There are still investigative magazines who are still trying to find that big scoop on some scandal to this day. This style of journalism created a new genre of writing which became increasingly popular.

When magazines began to publish digital content it changed the industry. The Freeport Press promoted a 10-question survey that created over 1200 responses in 2018. All of the responses were calculated and some interesting statistical percentages came out of this survey. The question was, “In the past month, how many Print magazines have you read?” The results displayed that 41% of people read printed magazines and 28% read the content digitally. This is interesting as even though a hard copy is less accessible, more people prefer it to read online.

There are pros and cons to both digital and printed magazines. Digital marketer Christine Mokoginta explains that one of the attractions to hard copies is that it is simply easier on the eyes. Most workers in the workforce are succumbed to staring into computer screens for hours on end and would like to give their eyes a break. This lifestyle eventually hurts the eyes. It is a soothing break to the eyes to read off a page. She also explains the satisfaction in holding a physical copy and being able to flip through pages is a reason why people would prefer them.

What does this information mean to the small businessman wanting to further his company? Or how does this adjustment with technology change how big corporations seeking to increase their revenue and lower costs? Well, big corporations are predicting the shift to digital and big names such as ESPN moving strictly to digital. Forbes contributor, Gary Philips, states “That realization, that people are consuming content online before it plops onto newsstands, led ESPN to become the latest publication to move on from the printed page.” Predicting the market and where it moves is what big corporations are constantly looking for. They look to capitalize on their revenue which sometimes means taking risks. For smaller business owners, taking risks is incredibly scary which is why they try and follow bigger corporate moves.

The integration between social media and magazines has become increasingly popular over the past decade. Facebook holds 67% of people visiting a magazine’s Facebook page, and 47% are also likely to post a magazine article to Facebook. Facebook also has been named “The best product for use in engaging with a magazine brand.” Twitter holds 56% of people following a magazine on Twitter. 51% of people also retweeting an article from a magazine’s Twitter feed. Social media has been a great place for both big and small magazine companies. Since many are on social media, this type of advertising is one of the best ways to get the most eyes on new articles.