Top 100 US magazines by circulation - Some of the largest I've never even heard of

[astro]

Just an FYI I thought was an interesting snapshot on the things we think are think are important enough to subscribe to magazine about.

Top 100 Magazines - Here are the 100 largest magazines based on circulation.

[Jonathan Chance]

Wellll....there's jokers in that deck. The AARP magazines are, I'm pretty certain, free circulation magazines that are advertising driven and, if considered 'paid' then it comes with a membership that a lot of people sign up for due to insurance and other reasons.

Most of the rest of the top ten have a VERY high newsstand circulation, particularly the women's magazines. So there are a lot circulated that are never read and are either thrown out or returned and subsequently produce an amended circulation report.

National Geographic, however, is strongly subscription-based. Though the price is below cost of production and the magazine, as almost all do, makes its money through advertising. Those glossy full pages don't come cheap, baby.

[BrainGlutton]

Gourmet folded last year.

[elfkin477]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Chance

Wellll....there's jokers in that deck. The AARP magazines are, I'm pretty certain, free circulation magazines that are advertising driven and, if considered 'paid' then it comes with a membership that a lot of people sign up for due to insurance and other reasons.

Likewise all the AAA magazines - they send them out to all members.

The first one on the list I don't know is #30, which seems to either be a religious or new-age thing. Altogether there are 10 that I've never at least heard of.

[dangermom]

Yeah, a bunch of those are the kind that come with your membership. We get AAA Via and it promptly gets recycled.

[John Mace]

Which ones have you never heard of? The top 20 are instantly recognizable to me, but then I browse through the magazine section at bookstores a lot. And I'm over 50, so I get those frickin' AARP mags whether I want them or not.

[BrainGlutton]

Hey, where's Big Black Asses?! And Modern Bride?!

[Musicat]

Am I the only one who subscribes to Bodilicious Boobies?

And why it Time still wasting trees? Haven't they heard about the Internet?

[astro]

Originally Posted by john mace

which ones have you never heard of? The top 20 are instantly recognizable to me, but then i browse through the magazine section at bookstores a lot. And i'm over 50, so i get those frickin' aarp mags whether i want them or not.

game informer magazine

taste of home

guideposts

real simple

[Hello Again]

I was stunned that Boy's Life outcirculates Motor Trend. I've never heard of anyone getting Boy's Life before in my life.

ETA: oh, its the official magazine of the Boy Scouts. That explains it.

[Zsofia]

Originally Posted by BrainGlutton

Hey, where's Big Black Asses?! And Modern Bride?!

Modern Bride is dead as a doornail, my friend.

I love it when I get questions about my job! Game Informer is a membership magazine, and the membership gets you better trade-in values at Gamestop. Guideposts is for your religious aunt. Your mom reads Real Simple and Taste of Home. I'm assuming you are a guy, astro, who is not religious and does not play video games.

ETA - in other words, yes, there are ringers in the magazine world. We get everything on that list at the liberry except for Maxim. (In fact, we get everything on that list plus 1,400 publications. We get magazines that nobody gets. We get magazines that only theoretical, fictional people get. We can tell, because they never get around to sending them to us.)

[MTCicero]

Whither Mental Floss?

[Krokodil]

I've been hearing for years that Maxim has been kicking Playboy's ass in every measure that matters. Looks like Playboy still has a slight edge in circulation, if not advertising dollars...

[Boyo Jim]

In the top 50, I've never heard of these:

GAME INFORMER MAGAZINE
TASTE OF HOME
SOUTHERN LIVING
GUIDEPOSTS
REAL SIMPLE
REMEDY MD
FAMILY FUN
COOKING LIGHT
ENDLESS VACATION
IN STYLE
EVERYDAY WITH RACHAEL RAY

[MTCicero]

Originally Posted by Boyo Jim

EVERYDAY WITH RACHAEL RAY

My god, you're one lucky SOB!

[Autolycus]

Reader's Digest makes excellent toilet reading.

[Boyo Jim]

I've heard OF Rachel Ray, but not that she had a mag. Which is a couple of steps down from Oprah -- I heard of her, and I've heard of her magazine, but I've never seen anthing inside the covers. which I occasionally see on racks by the checkout line.

[friedo]

I work for the company that publishes like a quarter of those. And my job has absolutely nothing to do with magazines.

[Hilarity N. Suze]

Originally Posted by Boyo Jim

In the top 50, I've never heard of these:

GAME INFORMER MAGAZINE
TASTE OF HOME
SOUTHERN LIVING
GUIDEPOSTS
REAL SIMPLE
REMEDY MD
FAMILY FUN
COOKING LIGHT
ENDLESS VACATION
IN STYLE
EVERYDAY WITH RACHAEL RAY

So what's in your dentist's waiting room?

[KRC]

We used to get Guideposts when I was a kid--I think one of my aunts bought us a subscription. It was somewhat like Reader's Digest but with a more religious fundamentalist slant. It contained a lot of important moral lessons which no one in my family followed.

My college roomate and I joked that we'd start a spoof magazine called "Guardrails" which would be subtitled "For when you hit the skids."

[PatriotGrrrl]

Game Informer comes with the discount card from GameStop (and maybe other computer/video game stores). Anyone who buys more than a few games at those stores gets the magazine because the discount card saves them more money than the magazine costs.

[kiz]

If you have anything to do with serious home cooking, you'd automatically know all those culinary-related magazines

Guideposts is -- or maybe was -- a mainstay in a lot of born-again Christian households. When one of my friends was deeply into it, it was almost required reading for everyone in her congregation.

I've always wanted to like Real Simple. They have some great recipes and ideas. But the way it's laid out...maybe it's me, but it seems they waste an awful lot of paper with the extra-wide margins and how little is on each page...

[Justin_Bailey]

Originally Posted by PatriotGrrrl

Game Informer comes with the discount card from GameStop (and maybe other computer/video game stores). Anyone who buys more than a few games at those stores gets the magazine because the discount card saves them more money than the magazine costs.

While true, it's also widely considered the best games magazine and has been for some time. It's as high as it is because it's tied to a GameStop membership, but it would still sell well regardless.

[JohnT]

No Highlights or High Times.

[Siam Sam]

Have never heard of Rachel Ray.

Originally Posted by BrainGlutton

Hey, where's Big Black Asses?! And Modern Bride?!

Originally Posted by Musicat

Am I the only one who subscribes to Bodilicious Boobies?

I am reminded of a friend way back in Texas. On his coffee table was not one, but two separate editions of a magazine called Girls Who Like to Suck Big Cocks. I recall they cost $25 piece, and $25 back then was a lot more than $25 today!

[BrainGlutton]

Originally Posted by Autolycus

Reader's Digest makes excellent toilet reading.

In the classic, Sears-Catalog sense.

[Ionizer]

Originally Posted by Hilarity N. Suze

So what's in your dentist's waiting room?

It seems that Southern Living is the staple for most physician offices that I am familiar with. Too many times, I sit waiting for wife in various waiting rooms with piles of nothing but Southern Living. Or 5-yr+ old Time magazines! Seems no one wants to 'borrow' *those* Now and then, maybe an older Motor Trend or Road and Track (whoopee/shrug)

[Autolycus]

Originally Posted by BrainGlutton

In the classic, Sears-Catalog sense.

Maybe for you haha. I have the internet for that.

[elfkin477]

Originally Posted by astro

Taste of home

Taste of home is a magazine that's a mix between awesome and downright bizarre recipes. My mom subscribes to it off and on.

[Neptunian Slug]

Heh, Endless Vacation is sent out by members of RCI the timeshare exchange company. Has a permanent place in the bathroom magazine rack.

The only one that we actually subscribe to is Lucky. Mrs Slug needs to keep up with the latest fashion trends.

[JKilez]

Originally Posted by Autolycus

Maybe for you haha. I have the internet for that.

The internet wipes your ass???

[fusoya]

The only thing I currently subscribe to is Entertainment Weekly (#45). Which is like the magazine version of Cafe Society - stories on the entertainment INDUSTRY, without any of the gossip that other magazines base themselves around.

I will NEVER subscribe to another magazine ever again, after all of the shit that Future Publishing put me through when I agreed to take a free 4 month subscription to Electronic Gaming Monthly - which included trying to bill me $80 a year THREE TIMES.

I remember I always used to hear that TV Guide had the highest subscription, which was supposed to be making a negative point about how Americans only want to read about TV. If that were true, I'm sure the great drop in subscriptions is due to on-screen programming guides and DVRs.

[Bryan Ekers]

Originally Posted by JKilez

The internet wipes your ass???

Duering the heady days of the tech boom, no internet idea was dismissed.


_{I pee, oh?}

[Robot Arm]

Originally Posted by Zsofia

Modern Bride is dead as a doornail, my friend.

Has it been replaced by Postmodern Bride?

Originally Posted by MTCicero

Whither Mental Floss?

One of my favorites, but I didn't expect to see it on the list.

[FriarTed]

Guideposts is published by Norman Vincent Peale's organization. While being somewhat conservative Christian compared to SDMB standards, it's TV Evangelist equivalent is Robert Schuller, not exactly deserving of the "fundamentalist" label. Real fund'ists would deride them as being too doctrinally "lite".

I'm between the two camps- I do like more substantial religious doctrine but I also like Peale & Schuller & realize their ministries are not the typical Evangelistic ones. Oh- and before any points it out, I also realize NVP passed away some time ago.

[Chronos]

I'm surprised I don't see Parade on the list. Are they not counting it as a "real magazine"?

[Zsofia]

Originally Posted by Hilarity N. Suze

So what's in your dentist's waiting room?

Children's Illustrated Bible?

I just realized I haven't seen one of those in year. Whither the Children's Illustrated Bible?

[FriarTed]

Originally Posted by Zsofia

Children's Illustrated Bible?

I just realized I haven't seen one of those in year. Whither the Children's Illustrated Bible?

Was it an entire Bible or the first of a multi-volume set of Bible Stories, perhaps by an Arthur S. Maxwell?

If the latter, they're still around. They are a product of the Seventh-Day Adventists.

[pancakes3]

i've never heard of "Prevention". no tiger beat?

[Ferret Herder]

Originally Posted by astro

game informer magazine

taste of home

guideposts

real simple

People have covered the others already, so I'll handle Real Simple - it's a home and life organization magazine aimed at women, which usually has tips each month on decoration, clothes, cleaning, cooking, and similar topics. It's like trying for Martha Stewart results but in an easier and faster way. Whoops, missed that kiz covered it some - since the magazine is "square bound" and not stapled in the middle, I used to tear out every page that had ads on both sides, without fear of losing any wanted pages. You'd be surprised how much that cut down the thickness of the magazine!

pancakes3: Prevention is a small-sized (around Reader's Digest size or smaller) health magazine.

[bump]

Originally Posted by Boyo Jim

In the top 50, I've never heard of these:

GAME INFORMER MAGAZINE
TASTE OF HOME
SOUTHERN LIVING
GUIDEPOSTS
REAL SIMPLE
REMEDY MD
FAMILY FUN
COOKING LIGHT
ENDLESS VACATION
IN STYLE
EVERYDAY WITH RACHAEL RAY

You live in Wisconsin and you've never heard of Southern Living Magazine?

Seriously... if you're not a video gamer, religious, a woman, a Southerner or a senior citizen, you're not likely to subscribe to any of those.

If you don't hang around with those groups, you're unlikely to even know they exist. Only reason I know about most of those, is that my parents, grandmother and wife all fit into one or more of those categories; I fit into the video gamer category myself.

[Boyo Jim]

Wisconsin is not generally considered to be part of the South.

And I listen to my iPod in doctor's waiting rooms, so I have no idea what mags they keep.

[ProfessorX]

I'm surprised that so many haven't heard of southern living. Although I did grow up in the south, so maybe it really just doesn't circulate outside of that area?

[Krokodil]

Originally Posted by Chronos

I'm surprised I don't see Parade on the list. Are they not counting it as a "real magazine"?

I wondered about that too. With newspapers biting the dust left and right, circulations down and competition from USA Weekend for the same niche, it just might not have made the cut this time.

[Wendell Wagner]

Parade has a circulation of 32 million:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parade_(magazine)

I don't know why it's not on the list.

[singular1]

Originally Posted by ProfessorX

I'm surprised that so many haven't heard of southern living. Although I did grow up in the south, so maybe it really just doesn't circulate outside of that area?

It's in a few of my doctors' offices up here in Seattle, so it's definitely not just a Southern magazine.

[Skammer]

Originally Posted by Boyo Jim

In the top 50, I've never heard of these:

GAME INFORMER MAGAZINE
TASTE OF HOME
SOUTHERN LIVING
GUIDEPOSTS
REAL SIMPLE
REMEDY MD
FAMILY FUN
COOKING LIGHT
ENDLESS VACATION
IN STYLE
EVERYDAY WITH RACHAEL RAY

Just goes to show you. My wife subscribes to Southern Living and In Style and we used to subscribe to Cooking Light. And I grew up with Guideposts; I think my grandmother got it at church.

[Musicat]

Originally Posted by Wendell Wagner

Parade has a circulation of 32 million:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parade_(magazine)

I don't know why it's not on the list.

I think it's available only "bundled" with Sunday papers, and the list was including only standalone pubs.

[Chronos]

But they are including mags that are bundled with club memberships. If anything, I'd think that Parade should qualify before all of the AAA magazines, say.

[kenobi 65]

Originally Posted by Chronos

But they are including mags that are bundled with club memberships. If anything, I'd think that Parade should qualify before all of the AAA magazines, say.

I'd have to guess it's because no one buys Parade on its own...they buy, or subscribe, to hundreds of different newspapers, into which Parade is inserted.