A Portrait Of The New American Family

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 15, 2001 by Jimmy Guterman, John Fetto

Inside the 2000 Census numbers lies a treasure trove of information that can help publishers profitably mine that next untapped or underserved niche. But don't blindly follow the data. If your magazine talks to the audience as if it's a mere demographic group, you're in big trouble.

Boomers are the first American generation who appear shocked to be aging, traumatized when they notice a little more gray or a few more wrinkles. Suggest to many boomers that they are not, er, young anymore, and you may well find yourself on the receiving end of a tirade. So, how do you direct magazines at older Americans without letting them know you're trying to reach them because they're getting older?

That's the sort of question savvy magazine publishers and editors are trying to answer these days. The massive Census 2000 not only showed that Americans are getting older, but also uncovered or underlined several other trends crucial to the magazine industry as it tries to figure out what readers want now and how that might change in the future. A cursory glance at the treasure trove of information buried in the U.S. Census 2000 data would yield some top-line conclusions, like the following:

* Americans are getting older.

* Americans have a more flexible definition of "family."

* Americans are becoming less white.

* American teenagers have more money.

But before you stop everything and launch four new titles based on the data, realize that there is much more to it than just following broad trends.

"There are thousands of opportunities to start new magazines right now," says Bob Jordan, co-chairman of International Demographics, a market research firm based in Houston. "But none of the information you need to figure out which magazine to start is the sort you'd necessarily pick up from a survey. In the end, it's an entrepreneurial thing."

Follow the numbers, of course, but that's just the beginning of the search for the next blockbuster magazine. Unless you do the deeper research, the free data from the government is worth exactly what you paid for it. Look through the recycling pile at earlier, failed attempts to capture rich, older demographics--titles like Lear's and Senior Golfer--and you can see that marketing too overtly to a particular demographic might result in a short-lived title.

The trick is how to speak to demographic groups without reducing them to a demographic profile. FOLIO:--with expert assistance from our sister publication American Demographics--has combed through the latest available census data and psychographic studies and talked to publishing executives and market-research gurus to help magazine makers understand the changing face of America.

AMERICANS ARE GETTING OLDER

Just a brief look at the boomer profile shows why they're such an attractive group: They're better educated and more likely to have two incomes in a household than the previous generation. But even smart magazines intended for boomers (such as Mirabella, which Hachette Filipacchi Magazines shut down last year) haven't made a huge impact. The latest magazine for aging boomers is one that readers don't pay for: My Generation. Edited by former New York Woman editor in chief Betsy Carter, the magazine launched in March with 3.1 million copies mailed to subscribers--but no one asked to receive it. Those copies were sent to members of AARP. That's the relatively hip, acronym-only title for the Organization Formerly Known as the American Association of Retired Persons.

Says My Generation publisher Jim Fishman, who's also publisher of flagship AARP magazine Modern Maturity, "50 isn't what 50 used to be." Indeed, since 1996, the year boomers started turning 50 and became eligible to join the organization, there's been a shift away from AARP membership--46 percent of all Americans over 50 belong to the organization, but only 32 percent of those between 50 and 54 pay dues. Only 25 percent of 50-year-olds join AARP when they hit 50.

The My Generation prototype featured a smiling Bruce Springsteen on the cover; clearly, it was intended as a magazine for aging Americans who don't necessarily think of themselves as aging Americans. "Many of our members have spouses under 50," says Fishman. "So My Generation is targeted at ages 45 to 55. We'll age the target one year each year as our members age."

And as boomers get older, their lives will be very different from the previous, greatest generation. They married later (between 1970 and 2000, the median age at first marriage for women increased by 4.3 years, to 25.1 years) and became parents later than their parents did. And now they're putting off retirement. This delay, which will mean boomers have higher incomes longer into their lives, is expected to lead to a boom in a number of markets, including medical services (some foresee a spike in cosmetic surgery) and personal and household services ranging from massages to landscaping.

How committed are boomers to looking and feeling younger despite their advancing age? In a survey conducted by Del Webb Corporation, a large real estate developer of retirement communities, 28 percent said they plan to go back to school when they retire. In another survey, "Secure Tomorrow's Autonomy Today," commissioned by the GE Center for Financial Learning, 55 percent of boomers said they expect to "perform basic tasks independently" into their eighties.