A study was conducted to establish whether optimum editorial mixes (mixes of items selected from content categories determined from factor analysis) can be determined by publications editors in attempting to provide wide audience appeal with a minimum number of stories. A questionnaire was designed to determine employee opinions of the Tennessee…

The "Texas Monthly," a one and a half year old magazine begun in February 1973, provides upper income readers with both booster and critical content. In its first year, the magazine moved from 10,000 circulation to 60,000, from six to thirty-five pages of ads, and from a staff of six to twenty-one. Nearly half of its readers are in the $20,000 and…

Research in visual communication suggests that relatively complex graphics stimulate viewer interest, while relatively simple graphics facilitate learning. A study was conducted to determine whether the graphics in two science publications ("Scientific American" and "Sciences 81") would be tailored to the ways in which their…

The sender of communication strives to deliver information in depth; receivers of that communication favor more, and shorter, bits of information. In this study, the coefficient of balance between depth and scope was correlated with measures of the popularity of a group of magazines published in Austin, Texas. A regression formula was used to…

The effects on readers of direct quotations versus paraphrases, and reader comprehension of material from direct quotations versus paraphrases were examined in this experiment. Four reasonably short and clear stories--two speech stories and two interview stories--were selected from metropolitan daily newspapers. Two versions of each story were set…

Noting the increase in the number of Hispanics in the United States and a parallel increase in the number of magazines for this segment of the population, a study analyzed readership patterns of a Spanish-language metropolitan magazine. Data were collected by means of a mail survey completed by 282 subscribers of the "Miami Mensual." Six…

A study tested the uses and gratifications theoretical perspective--that motivations affect media use which in turn influences the effects of that use. The American Student Dental Association targeted its publications to different subaudiences and provided a grant to the University of Texas at Austin to study (1) whether the differentiation…

A study was conducted to test the validity of a media exposure model that posits that editorial tone, communication potential, and utility determine the linkage between an individual's medium assessments and choices. A personal interview readership survey of Nigerian elites who read two high quality magazines distributed by the United States…

Since the concepts of surveillance (international information and keeping up with the job that the government is doing), diversion (being entertained and killing time), and interaction (people learning more about themselves) have been developed for newspaper and television but not necessarily for magazines, a study applied 14…

The responses of 36 publishers and editors of city magazines--magazines such as "Chicago,""MPLS," and "Texas Monthly" that are published primarily for a local or regional market--provided data for an analysis of the positioning of these magazines in the media marketplace, factors leading to their success, their…

Based on Daniel Fader's philosophy that "pleasure and enthusiasm must be the first (and at times the only) goal of an English teacher," this paper discusses the use of best sellers and current literature in remedial and freshman English classes. Best sellers were used as the basis for class discussion and provided topics for themes in the remedial…

This paper summarizes a series of studies undertaken by the United States Information Agency Service between 1970 and 1972 in Bolivia, Great Britain, Argentina, and Lebanon. The purpose of the research was to develop new techniques for analyzing the audiences of USIA periodicals. Survey respondents--all members of USIA priority audience…

Before launching any publications, a newly formed publishing company in New Delhi, India, surveyed its potential readership to develop a demographic overview of the community, to determine patterns and preferences of magazine use, and to develop a profile of perceived and real readership needs. A questionnaire eliciting such information was given…

This paper focuses on book-centered and "non-book" children and the role of the Internet in changing literature and children's reading habits. Highlights include diversity in children's books; differing magazine readership across the continents; the concept of narrative; the problem of book-centered children becoming outsiders in a more…

Concerned with the validity of the audience data reported by two major syndicated magazine readership services--Mediamark Research Inc. (MRI) and Simmons Market Research Bureau (SMRB)--a study examined the differences in MRI and SMRB calculations of reader turnover rates, which form the basis for estimating audience accumulation. Results indicated…