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to AARP the Magazine
Org's new plan to capitalize on huge membership
By Jeff Bercovici
My Generation magazine was born two years ago out of an interesting idea: that baby boomers constitute a unique club, one whose members feel a special affinity toward one another based on a shared history and culture.
Unlike other magazines, which try to maintain a consistent median age, My Generation would age along with its readers, accompanying them from retirement through the golden years and into old age, with another title eventually being introduced to serve the generation that came after.
Not all interesting ideas work out, though. My Generation failed to attract enough attention from readers and advertisers to justify the cost of producing and marketing a separate title for boomers. The current January/February issue is its last.
In two weeks, AARP will introduce a new title, AARP The Magazine.
With three editions — for readers in their fifties, in their sixties, and age 70 and up — it will replace both My Generation and the publication that spawned it, Modern Maturity (known recently as AARP Modern Maturity).
Its circulation of 21.5 million will make it the biggest magazine in the country with the exception of Parade and USA Weekend, both newspaper supplements.
AARP The Magazine's publisher, Jim Fishman, says the relaunch grew out of the realization that the AARP brand (which use to stand for American Association of Retired Persons but no longer does) was more familiar to consumers than either Modern Maturity or My Generation.
"All of our readers are AARP members. That's the name they know," says Fishman. "Do we want to spend the money to build a brand that none of those members had ever heard of?"
In a way, the new approach can be seen as a repudiation of the idea behind My Generation. In effect, it's admission that age is more important than generation after all -- that being at the same stage of life is a more powerful thing to have in common than having watched the moon landing or remembering where you were when Kennedy was shot.
Hugh Delehanty, AARP's editorial director and the new publication's editor in chief, says combining the two titles into one was a way of recognizing the artificiality of generational distinctions.
"The oldest baby boomers are 57 now, but you don't miraculously change at age 58," says Delehanty. "Essentially, what we have done here is segmentation by life stage."
Accordingly, each edition of AARP The Magazine will carry a large amount of content specially tailored to its audience.
"The entire magazine is looked at for segmentation, for versioning," says Fishman. The articles that differ the most from one edition to the next are those that deal with health and personal finance. A column on managing money emphasizes investing in the fifties edition but saving in the 70-plus edition. For a story about the obesity epidemic, the magazine asked a fitness experts to design three exercise programs.
Each edition's story is illustrated with the program appropriate to its age group.
Personal essays, which are featured in the "Inside Story" department, are also different for each group. In the relaunch issue, the essay for fiftysomethings is by a woman who lied about going to Woodstock, the middle edition has an essay about being glamorous in your sixties and the 70-plus edition's essay is on living with pain.
In other cases, tailoring content for the different audiences is just a matter of tone and emphasis. For instance, the cover story in the relaunch issue is a package on innovators over 50. The youngest edition of the magazine -- overseen by creative director Betsy Carter, formerly My Generation's editor in chief -- devotes plenty of space to Bob Dylan, Norma Kamali and cover subject Steven Spielberg. The sixties and 70-plus editions give more play to older innovators like Jimmy Carter and George Soros.
The intention throughout is to make readers of each edition feel that the magazine is edited just for them, says Delehanty.
"This magazine is about trying to connect with readers on a deeply personal level."
January 16, 2003© 200
3 Media Life-
Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.
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