The Ad Force is Strong in This One

silverspoons_cm_2014Regional magazines continue their winning streak, with billions in commerce dollars generated by their print ads.

$177 billion: That’s the amount of consumer spending influenced by print ads in regional print magazines, says the CRMA.

“Readers of city and/or regional magazines are mostly affluent, well-educated, and often make purchases based on ads seen in print publications, according to an independent readership study commissioned by the City and Regional Magazine Association (CRMA), released today following the organization’s 40th annual conference in Denver, Colorado,” writes Greg Dool in Folio:.

Dool shared some of the data from that report – including that $177b stat – last week and the news is nothing but good for regional publishers and their advertising partners.

“The study suggests that regional magazine readers are mostly female (61 percent), generally hold a college degree (79 percent), and are relatively affluent, with a median household income of $162,000,” Dool continues. “And the items on which they dispose of that income often come advertised in the regional magazines they read; 68.4 percent of regional magazine readers purchase products and services from ads seen in publications, suggests the survey.”

The print ad force is strong with this audience, clearly. And what gives advertisers a double whammy of good results is the distinctive distribution of these types of local publications.

As Dool notes, “individual copies of regional magazines average 4.3 readers per copy—about 17 percent of regional magazines are distributed through means other than newsstand sales and mailing to subscribers, such as in waiting rooms and hotels—while 76 percent of readers say they will have the old edition of a magazine ‘in hand’ when the new edition arrives. The CRMA says both of these figures indicate that city and regional magazines are considered both resources and keepsakes.”

Given both the power of advertising and the non-reliance on the newsstand model, it’s no surprise to us that the optimism in the regional magazine niche continues, building on to the hot streak of the past couple of years.