Readership and Popularity of Magazine

Readership and Popularity of Magazines

Readership and Popularity of Magazine

Readership and popularity are not necessarily identical. A large readership might be one of the indicators of popularity, though not the only indicator. While readership relates to an activity, popularity relates to a positive feeling, of liking and of enjoying what one reads. But who is a ‘reader’ in the first place? Is a ‘reader’ one who has merely ‘seen’ a magazine, as market researchers assume when they conduct National Readership Surveys (NRS)? Then there are what might be termed ‘primary readers’ and ‘secondary readers’ or even ‘tertiary readers’. 

Primary readers are those who read every piece in the magazine with attention and care, and are not distracted by other activities. 

Secondary readers are those who read magazines while they are watching television, listening to the radio or to the audio-recorder, looking after children, answering telephones or doorbells, etc. 

For a third group of readers, magazine reading is an incidental superficial activity carried out while changing nappies, laying the table, cooking for the family, washing clothes, etc.

A further complication arises because most magazine readers are selective in what they choose to read. And what they select to read may not sometimes be to their liking. 

Measuring popularity is as slippery an exercise as the attempt by marketing agencies to measure ‘readership’. Such attempts can at best provide only ‘guestimates’ rather than accurate statistical data. But since such guessing exercises are presented in statistical terms and in convincing graphics, the impression propagated (by the media primarily) is that ‘scientific’ surveys have been conducted.

See Also :

Print Media and Communication	Freedom of Press - The right to Publish and Privacy
Communication and Print media	Council Guides to Journalistic Ethics
Introduction to Print Media	Censorship in the Press and Media
Developments in Print Media	Media Laws
Contribution of News Papers	Press Ownership and Monopoly
Contribution of Magazines	Media Organisations and News Agencies
Press Commissions and Councils	The Mass Media
The Power of Press	Functions of Mass Media
History of Indian Journalism	Theories of the Press or Media
Press Censorship under the Emergency	Code of Ethics for Journalists
News Values in Journalism	Readership and Popularity of Magazine
Magazine genres-Types of Magazine