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Why America embarresses me, and is doomed...

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Janissy
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29 Nov 2011, 9:05 am

zer0netgain wrote:
Janissy wrote:
Yes, those two sets of covers do show an American tendency to focus on our own personal lives rather than global politics.


And that makes no sense when you consider if you don't want to read about international issues, buy a different magazine, or Time could make a "Time Lite" for those who want easy, breezy reading. Don't make a perversion of your flagship periodical to cater to a specific audience.


I now think I was wrong about that. Blausamstag made an argument that the actual readers of Time in the USA are people sitting in medical waiting rooms and that affects what goes on the cover. Once he said that, I realized that I never buy Time myself but did recently read it while waiting for my dentist appointment. Maybe that really is the norm for their USA readership. Science-y articles about one's personal life and health are exactly appropriate for people in doctor/dentist waiting rooms.



shrox
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29 Nov 2011, 1:46 pm

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Last edited by shrox on 30 Nov 2011, 3:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

zer0netgain
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29 Nov 2011, 2:30 pm

Janissy wrote:
zer0netgain wrote:
Janissy wrote:
Yes, those two sets of covers do show an American tendency to focus on our own personal lives rather than global politics.


And that makes no sense when you consider if you don't want to read about international issues, buy a different magazine, or Time could make a "Time Lite" for those who want easy, breezy reading. Don't make a perversion of your flagship periodical to cater to a specific audience.


I now think I was wrong about that. Blausamstag made an argument that the actual readers of Time in the USA are people sitting in medical waiting rooms and that affects what goes on the cover. Once he said that, I realized that I never buy Time myself but did recently read it while waiting for my dentist appointment. Maybe that really is the norm for their USA readership. Science-y articles about one's personal life and health are exactly appropriate for people in doctor/dentist waiting rooms.


To my knowledge, Time does not put out multiple editions you subscribe to based on target audience. In the USA, Time is Time. There aren't multiple versions of it to subscribe to.



Janissy
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29 Nov 2011, 4:05 pm

zer0netgain wrote:
Janissy wrote:
zer0netgain wrote:
Janissy wrote:
Yes, those two sets of covers do show an American tendency to focus on our own personal lives rather than global politics.


And that makes no sense when you consider if you don't want to read about international issues, buy a different magazine, or Time could make a "Time Lite" for those who want easy, breezy reading. Don't make a perversion of your flagship periodical to cater to a specific audience.


I now think I was wrong about that. Blausamstag made an argument that the actual readers of Time in the USA are people sitting in medical waiting rooms and that affects what goes on the cover. Once he said that, I realized that I never buy Time myself but did recently read it while waiting for my dentist appointment. Maybe that really is the norm for their USA readership. Science-y articles about one's personal life and health are exactly appropriate for people in doctor/dentist waiting rooms.


To my knowledge, Time does not put out multiple editions you subscribe to based on target audience. In the USA, Time is Time. There aren't multiple versions of it to subscribe to.


What I meant, and I think Blausamstag meant, is that people trapped in waiting rooms are the only audience Time has got left in the US and so that's who they target. That's an exaggerration, since I'm sure they do newstand business and have subscribers other than the people in charge of stocking waiting rooms. But the waiting room target market may actually be a big enough chunk of their US readership to influence what is chosen as the cover story. This is something the marketing department at Time could easily figure out by figuring out how much of their subscriptions go to residential areas versus business areas (there must be programs that could figure this out with ease) versus newstand sales.