Magazines

=Introduction=

Magazines are a very successful form of media which also narrowcast to specific audiences. According to Media Now, “there are over eighteen thousand different titles of magazines to choose from, with three hundred and sixty-five new magazines being published each year.” (Media Now, 84) Today’s magazines are generally broken down into the following categories:

=Categories of Magazines=

“General- interest e.g. People, and Reader’s Digest Geographic: e.g. New York, Arizona Highways, Southern Living Demographic: e.g. People en Espaňol, Latina and Ebony Lifestyle: e.g. Maxim, Rolling Stone News Magazines: e.g. Time, Newsweek, U.S News, and World Report Special-Interest: e.g. Guitar Player, Road & Track, Country Living Trade and Professional: e.g. Broadcasting and Cable, Editor & Publisher, Variety, Billboard Elite: e.g. The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books” (Media Now, 84)

Similar to newspapers, magazines (if popular enough) do have the potential of having a long life span. Take for example Life Magazine, which has been around for a number of decades.

=Benefits of Magazines=

Another benefit to magazines is that they are cost efficient. The price of magazines usually ranges three to ten dollars. Due to the low cost of magazines, magazine subscriptions are often a route an avid magazine reader decides to take.

=Magazine Subscriptions=

Magazine subscriptions are where an individual decides that they would like a weekly or (most commonly) monthly issue of a magazine shipped to their home address. Subscriptions are a good idea as this way the reader of the magazine never misses an issue nor does he or she have to worry about going to the newsstand to purchase the issue of the magazine. Usually with magazine subscriptions, the customer purchasing the subscription is saving money by purchasing a weekly or monthly subscription as opposed to purchasing it weekly or monthly from the newsstand. Magazine subscriptions serve as great gifts or even for one’s own personal use.

Overall, magazines serve as informative, educational and pleasurable all a the same time. From National Geographic to Popular Mechanics, to Seventeen there’s a magazine out there for everyone.

=Works Cited=

Larose, Robert, and Joseph Straubhaar. __Media Now__. USA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2004