Comments on: Dept. of I Didn’t Know There Were So Many Dentists

By: mcat

mcat — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 01:30:22 +0000

I’m a physician and several years ago I suddenly started receiving numerous free magazines for the waiting room including Time and Newsweek–we haven’t bought magazines here at the office in 8-9 years! Sometimes the variety rotates, but Time and Newsweek ALWAYS show up.

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 06:43:21 +0000

We had never subscribed to Time, but about 4 months ago it started appearing with my 18 year old sons name on it. I leave it in his box and he throws it out.

It is a mystery to us.

By: Portia

Portia — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 03:51:33 +0000

Well… there’s this thing called “Time for Kids” which is like a scalled down version of the Times, to which all elementary school students MUST subscribe in our area. We are not given the option of opting out. We have to send the kids with money for their Time For Kids. Since this handout has the Time logo on their covers, I think it’s published by Time mag. And perhaps counts towards circulation?

By: Bill Schumm

Bill Schumm — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 18:22:18 +0000

Besides the college freebies, take away the “subscriptions” to all the: a)barber and beauty shops; b) libraries; and c) doctor and dentist offices, and you really don’t have much of a readership left. I wonder what kind of a silent rebate the advertisers are getting?

By: Kyda Sylvester

Kyda Sylvester — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 15:15:23 +0000

ComScore Media Metrix, another Internet research firm, last week released a study that found blog readers are younger and more affluent than other Internet users.

Wow, those “other Internet users” must be really, really old.

We once had a “gift” subscription to newsweak. It made the journey from mailbox straight to recycle bin every week. In waiting rooms I seek out travel magazines. Failing that I always have a NYT crossword puzzle in my purse.

I am one who tends to ignore advertising in all its forms (one noteable exception is travel ads). I probably have a sufficient number of digits on my body to count the number of times I’ve clicked on an Internet ad.

By: Marathon Pundit

Marathon Pundit — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 14:43:16 +0000

Roger: Do you think barbershops and beauty salons pay for all those magazines?

By: PJ

PJ — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 14:41:45 +0000

Yes, I would take their circulation numbers with a grain of salt. I suppose if they drop a barrel of them out of an airplane they are, technically, “circulating.”

By: Steven Mitchell

Steven Mitchell — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 14:18:06 +0000

I read both Newsweek and Time for a long time. (We held out hope for Time as long as they had Hugh Sidey as a columnist.) Now, they are so predictable that I don’t even need to buy them to know what they say. They have become the People of news mags. Actually, that’s unfair to People, since at least it will often have towards the back a nice human interest story, told straight, about something you probably don’t know. That’s what I read at the dentist, as I wouldn’t be caught dead reading Newsweek and Time in public.

By: richard mcenroe

richard mcenroe — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 14:15:17 +0000

You also have to assume Time is telling the truth about its circulation. Remember Newsday.

I’m in the heart of parlor-pink LA, between the NoHo “arts” district and the People’s Republic of Studio City. I never see Time and Newsweek sell out. Strangely, at my regular newsstand, National Review usually does and Weekly Standard and the American Spectator (which I stopped reading when they endorsed Intelligent Design) often do.

By: Billy Hollis

Billy Hollis — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:49:29 +0000

The question is not “How many paid subscribers do they have?”, but “How many people actually read the magazine?” Others have noted that many copies are extremely cheap. To their examples, let me add another – heavily discounted subscriptions through fund-raising activities and promotions such as Publisher’s Clearinghouse.

How many people read issues bought from their nephew’s Scout troop fund raiser? I’d venture to say a minority.

More telling is how many times Time, Newsweek, et al get referenced in the political blogosphere. My experience says “not much”, certainly not in proportion to their supposed circulation numbers. Economist Magazine is much more influential in discussion circles, even though the number of copies sold here is miniscule compared to Time/Newsweek/US News.

I think their problem is content. Forget their biases. Sure they’re biased, but no one cares that much about that. Why? Because their content has gotten so fluffy that it’s not even worth discussing.

Newsmagazines already suffer a considerable time lag because of weekly publication. If they can’t produce compelling content, it doesn’t matter how many cheap copies they manage to mail out – they have no influence to speak of.