Sitting on a plane yesterday morning flying from Melbourne to Newcastle I enjoyed watching how people nearby interacted with magazines. It was like I was in the magazine fan zone of the plane, magazines were the entertainment medium of choice.
To my left was a lady devouring Madison. I say devouring because she was reading it from front to back, taking her time. At one point, I saw her brush a photo gently with her hand as if she wanted to feel the dress in the shoot.
Across the aisle and to the right, a lady was reading Prevention, making notes on what looked like a TO DO list, underlining points of interest and folding back page corners for future reference. It was like the magazine was guiding changes in her life.
Across the aisle and in the row in front, a guy was drooling over Street Machine – he didn’t turn the page that often, he’d look at a photo and then look away as if carried by a dream.
Next to my Prevention lady was an older couple sharing Take 5 and That’s Life, taking turns to make moves on puzzles.
I had been watching for some time before I realised that I don’t often notice magazines beyond the newsagent perspective.
The level of interaction and obvious enjoyment was heart warming.
Newsagents and those who work in newsagencies work hard putting out new issues of magazines, removing from the shelves old issues, keeping the displays tidy, and managing the department in many other ways. It’s hard work. I suspect that many of us don’t get time to interact with magazines as I noticed my fellow travellers did yesterday morning.
Magazines we sell in our shops help people change their lives, dream wonderful dreams, keep brain active and feel good.
Mark, that’s a timely reminder of the perspective most of us USED to see mags from.
These days the last thing many of us have time for is to actually enjoy them without interruption.
If you think watching people read the magazines you sell in this ways is an eye-opener, spare a thought for a magazine editor doing the same thing.
I used to sit on the Turramurra to Town Hall train watching people read PC Magazine while I was proof-reading pages for the next issue. What I noticed was the picture heavy pages we spent ages designing were quickly passed over, but readers spent ages pouring over the tables of details, which took no time to design but hours of painstaking work to assemble and check.
After a few experiences of this nature, I moved even more resources into fact and detail checking….
It was a very useful lesson
My husband and I are avid readers of magazines. We read those that come as inserts in newspapers, as well as a host that relate to our interests and hobbies – and many of these are hoarded and referred back to regularly. In special interest magazines, even the advertisements are useful and interesting. Magazines make a big difference to our lives – they allow us to feel part of a community of like-minded souls. We appreciate the trouble that editors go to in styling photographs and writing well. Magazines genuinely do add joy to lives, changes lives, and generally allow people to feel good.
One (of few) things print going for it, is that readers can be in “relaxation” digestion mode while reading print. Nothing is going to change. Print feels secure.
In Web + iPad consumption, readers are in scan mode. Frantically skimming, scanning and picking out the most interesting parts. Everything can change. There is unlimited resources 1 click away.