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Ya Gotta Love This: Publisher Resurrecting Magazine Title That Died 50 Years Ago, Says He’s Targeting the 55- to 90-Year-Old Demo

Jan 19, 2011  •  Post A Comment

For those of you who complain that advertisers need to target Baby Boomers–who many claim have the wealth–and not young people, here’s a story for you.

John T. Elduff, the managing director of JTE Multimedia, a Philadelphia-based magazine company, has purchased the rights to Colliers, a classic magazine title that, after publishing for 70 years, went bust in 1957, according to AOL’s Daily Finance.

Says the article, "The key to Elduff’s strategy lies in the name recognition that Collier’s still enjoys among older readers. His reboot, which will contain a familiar (to those readers) mix of investigative journalism and short fiction, is aimed at the 55- to 90-year-old demographic, a group with some fond memories of the original magazine and a strong investment in print culture."

A number of anthology TV dramas from the golden age of TV in the 1950s, as well as a number of movies in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s were based on the short fiction in Collier’s.

The article also spoke to Samir Husni, who is the founder and director of the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi. The story says that Husni "notes that Collier’s hit the height of its popularity in the early 1940s, which means the readers who remember it most fondly would now be at least in their 80s. While he agrees that this audience would be very open to prescription advertising, he also notes that Elduff’s target readers would now be ‘years older than the average American lifespan.’ "

Furthermore, according to the article, Husni points out that "magazine rehabilitations rarely succeed. In fact, despite attempts to bring Look, Life, and The Saturday Evening Post back from the dead, the only resurrected magazine to really regain its former strength was Vanity Fair, which, he notes, was ‘launched as a brand new magazine.’ "

4 Comments

  1. WOW! What memories. I can remember when I was about ten, carrying a canvas bag full of Colliers, Country Gentleman, and other mags to deliver house to house in the Toluca Lake district. The short stories in Colliers were wonderful; think “Alexander Botts” etc. I hope the new publishers can re-capture that nicer, gentler, era.

  2. As surprising as it may seem to young hard bodies, many Baby Boomers have lots of disposable income. This past weekend I bought a 25′ boat. I will be getting another jet ski once the weather warms. Paid cash for the boat and will pay cash for the new jet ski. Flying to CA from GA just for this weekend to see family. Got a couple of 10 day cruises already lined up for this year and are planning at least two cruises for next year too. It’s nice to be able to just write a check and not worry about financing my toys and joys. Advertisers may “LOVE” the demographics of 18 to 49 year olds but it’s the old farts that really have more disposable income. I don’t understand why more advertisers don’t recognize this and develop more advertising specifically for this higher income group.

  3. This bodes well for the reprise of Godey’s Lady’s Book.

  4. The ridiculous conventional wisdom is that older viewers are set in their ways and have long since established brand loyalty so targeting them is a waste of time and mine.
    So it make so much more sense to target fickle younger viewers who haven’t such loyalty to any particular brands — especially when they aren’t watching television to begin with.
    The industry is slow understand that older viewers are actually younger than they use to be.

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