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are lightening up
Interests return to sports and celebs post-Sept. 11
By Gabriel Spitzer
When you saw even the most unashamed Maxim reader sheepishly tucking his October issue between copies of Newsweek and The Economist, you knew things were grim.
Like everyone else, America’s magazine readers grew deadly serious just after the events of Sept. 11.
But now things are returning to normal, with magazine readers again interested in lighter subjects like sports, travel and fashion.
This is according to a new report from Knowledge Networks/Statistical Research Inc. based on a survey conducted in December following a similar survey in October, in the immediate aftermath of the September tragedies.
In October, KN/SRI first found that magazine readers were turning in droves to news, which was not surprising, and to business coverage.
But when researchers returned to the field two months later they found that readers’ increased appetite for news was abating a bit and that they had begun to return to such magazine topics as celebrities, sports and movies.
"The areas that have swung back, particularly sports and movies, are the kinds of things that you have to go out of your home to do. And post-Sept. 11, people were not really keen on going out of their homes," says Jay Mattlin, vice president of client service at KN/SRI.
"That part of the post-Sept. 11 phenomenon is abating."
In October 15 percent of survey respondents said they were less interested in reading about sports than they were 12 months earlier.
But by December just 10 percent said they were less interested.
Similarly, people weren’t especially interested in reading about travel right after the tragedy, with 16 percent saying they were less interested in the subject than they were a year earlier.
But by December just 11 percent said they were less interested.
In a different sort of shift, there was little net change in the number of people who said they were more or less interested in reading about "people and personalities" in their magazines.
In October 15 percent of people said they were less interested than they were a year before, compared to 13 percent in December. Nine percent in October said they were more interested, compared to 8 percent in December.
However, people’s degree of interest seems to have shifted.
In October 42 percent said they were "somewhat interested" in reading about people and personalities, while just 11 percent said they were "very interested."
By December those who were "somewhat interested" had dropped to 34 percent, while those who were "very interested" had increased to 16 percent.
"If you look at the trend, there was a migration. It seems that people whose interests had softened in October are coming back," says Mattlin.
There may be another phenomenon at work here as well, Mattlin says.
"I think interest in these things had already crept back up, but people weren’t willing to admit it," he says.
"One of the useful things about doing this over a period of time is that people aren’t censoring themselves as much."
It has been difficult to gauge what people want from their media in the uncertain months following Sept. 11.
But there is reason to believe that looking at people’s magazine preferences may give a truer picture of what people are thinking than analyzing a much more passive medium—like television—where the choice of content is decided largely by the networks rather than the viewers.
"People’s magazine preferences speak a bit more about what they’re really about," Mattlin says.
"They’re making active choices about the magazines; the magazines aren't necessarily changing their coverage."
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Percentage of people 'less interested' in particular magazine subjects |
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| October 2001* | December 2001* | Net change | |
| Movies | 15 | 10 | -5 |
| Sports | 14 | 10 | -4 |
| Travel | 16 | 11 | -5 |
| People/Personalities | 15 | 13 | -2 |
| Source:
Knowledge Networks/Statistical Research Inc., based on survey of
Knowledge Networks national panel. Sampling error varies by category,
within 2-4 percent. * Percentage who said they were less interested in reading about the topic compared to 12 months earlier. |
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Percentage change in 'very' and 'somewhat' interested from October 2001 to December 2001 |
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| "Very interested" | "Somewhat Interested" | |
| News | -4 | 2 |
| Home Design and Gardening | -1 | -2 |
| Food and Cooking | 2 | -2 |
| Music | 1 | 0 |
| Sports | 1 | 0 |
| Television | 0 | -1 |
| Travel | 3 | -2 |
| People and personalities | 5 | -8 |
| Parenting and child care | 0 | 3 |
| Business and personal finance | 0 | -3 |
| Movies | 3 | 3 |
| Fashion and beauty | 0 | 1 |
| Source:
Knowledge Networks/Statistical Research Inc., based on survey of
Knowledge Networks national panel. Sampling error varies by category,
within 2-4 percent.
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February 4, 2002
© 2002 Media Life
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