Walking along Circular Quay in Sydney early in the morning a couple of weeks ago I noticed a homeless lady eating some breakfast and reading before hitting the road with her shopping trolley for the day. She was reading People’s Friend magazine. Then I noticed that she had a stack of People’s Friend issues in her trolley.
I didn’t have the guts to approach this connoisseur of People’s Friend on this morning. Now, two weeks on, I wish I had. I find myself thinking about her every couple of days. Partly because my mum reads People’s Friend and partly because this has been one of our top selling weekly magazines, number 4 in out top sellers in fact – between 55 and 70 copies a week.
On the main thoroughfare at Circular Quay that morning many people walking past my lady were connected to their iPhones or iPods, devices which challenge print. She was oblivious to the digital world and enjoying a story in People’s Friend. Long after our batteries are out of juice she will be able to enjoy the next story in the magazine. While so many of us need the next device in our hands to define our social status, this lady and plenty of others I am sure will get plenty of pleasure from the printed word.
I have realised that I keep thinking about what I saw that morning because it represents the intersection of two issues I often think about. People’s Friend is an old style weekly magazine where words matter and which owes nothing to garish design, celebrities, fads or free gifts. It is a print product which engages the consumer without the use of batteries and in a more engaging journey than much of the content one accesses on the i devices from Apple.
Change is inevitable. Print as a medium will be used less over time. Along the way, it is important for us to take the odd moment to recognise the importance and value of print to some. It is a vitally important medium for our businesses after all. In the short to medium term, print continues to present excellent opportunities for newsagents … for proactive newsagents that is.
What has this got to do with anything? Nothing I guess. I am sitting on a long flight listening to some nostalgic music, yes – on my iPod, as I write this. I wanted to write about the lady I saw at Circular Quay and try and share the warmth I feel when I think about her.
What a heartwarming story. Thanks for sharing Mark.
Same as Helen.
Yes, a heartwarming post Mark.
Peoples Friend is the only mag I read. I began sending it too my elderly Aunty who live in a nursing home. She used to pass the New Idea on to the nursing staff unread because they didn’t have good stories in it any more. She loved her Friend . It was the highlite of her week. The name says it all.
I was searching online where to get people’s friend and found this. I wish my newsagent had this passion. He won’t get the magazine in for me.