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Weekly UpdatesABSTRACT
Magazines are hardly the dominant determinant of consumer perceptions related to innovations in the food supply but for millions of people they do indeed contribute to the big picture within which your neighbours decide what to eat. This paper draws primarily from articles selected, during the three years preceding October 2007, for inclusion in the monthly Consumer Magazines DIGEST, an eight-page publication which has for 18 years summarised selected articles from the approximately fifty monthly US and Canadian magazines shown in Tables 1 and 2. Content reviewed here has been selected because of its relevance to the titles of other chapters in this issue of Innovation: Management, Policy and Practice.
Keywords: consumers; magazines; open access; surveys; functional foods; nutrigenomics; packaging; processing; labelling; marketing claims; sustainable agriculture
INTRODUCTION
Most people in academia and the business world rely heavily on electronic communication. It is easy, therefore, to forget that many consumers usually use the internet for little more than email and, perhaps, sending photographs of their children and vacations. A poll of more than 2,000 adults aged 20 years or over found that, when respondents have a health problem, the first step for 44% is indeed to check the internet. However for 12% of respondents, their first step is simply to call their mother (Prevention April 2007).
Magazines are hardly the dominant determinant of consumer perceptions related to innovations in the food supply, but for millions of people they do indeed contribute to the big picture within which your neighbors decide what to eat.
How monthly magazines differ from daily and weekly press
Nutritionists wear many hats within our profession. A university professor has a different expertise than a hospital dietitian. A food scientist employed by a government regulatory agency shares a knowledge base with a colleague working for a food company but their job descriptions are quite different. A public health nutritionist applies his expertise in this science toward a set of goals unlike those of someone with similar training who works for a public relations agency.
Similarly, monthly magazines cannot be painted with the sweep of a single brush. They do, however, have common characteristics unlike the 'fast press,' ie newspapers, weekly magazines and internet services. The most obvious distinction is copy deadlines. Magazines journalists have far more time to research an article. On the other hand, monthly magazines are simply incapable of responding quickly to hot, often controversial, topics--most write articles that won't be printed for another three months.
For better or for worse, the role of 'fast media' is to make news flashy and exciting--that is what these journalists are supposed to do in order to be successful in their career. Magazines, on the other hand, get subscription renewals and newsstand purchase, more often based on their ability to entertain and to be helpful to their readers. Their articles related to food and nutrition, therefore, put more emphasis on application of research findings and what newly found information can, or might, mean within the lifestyles and priorities of their target audience.
How magazines differ from each other
Just as a university food scientist with research expertise differs from a nutrition educator et cetera, Vogue is hardly the same magazine as Vegetarian Times. Consumer Reports and Readers Digest have dissimilar purposes and priorities. The magazines reviewed for the Consumer Magazines DIGEST are shown in Table 1, grouped by similar characteristics. Table 2 shows the same magazines with the abbreviation for each used in the following text, a code for its content category in Table 1, and 2005 circulation which ranges from AARP Magazine with more than 20 million to Ms. with less than 100,000.
Several types of articles exist, even within the same magazine. The shortest style used by several magazines is a full page of bulleted text, each message being 25 words or less. More common are articles ranging from 250 to 500 words. Unlike professional journals or the trade press, full page articles on a single topic in magazines might weave together content related not only to science but also to food preparation information, label reading and cost considerations. Lengthier pieces, especially those related to controversial topics or unsettled science, frequently include in juxtaposition the opinions of experts who interpret nutrition research differently.
Scope of magazine content
Within all the article-length styles described above, magazines often include in well-researched articles the perspectives of experts whose opinions to do carry much weight within the professional community. Annoying as this may seem to some nutrition professionals, this is indeed what journalism students are taught to do and, one might argue, what they are obliged to do. This characteristic is especially important in the context of the purpose of this paper. Magazines are an excellent tool for savvy product developers not only to gauge market opportunities but also to anticipate, prior to investing in an innovation, potential problems that might arise after a product launch.
Magazines' scope of content does, on the other hand, offer positive opportunities for food innovations. Unlike advertisers, journalists are not bound by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or Federal Trade Commisssion (FTC) limitations regarding the strength of scientific evidence required for communicating a message. They can, and do, report research which would not qualify as substantiation for a marketing claim but nevertheless creates a 'positive climate' for a nutrient- or phytochemical-content message from a food manufacturer.
Insights from Consumer Magazines DIGEST
This paper draws primarily from articles selected, during the three years preceding October 2007, for inclusion in the monthly Consumer Magazines DIGEST, an eight-page publication which has for 18 years summarised selected articles from the approximately fifty monthly US and Canadian magazines shown in Tables 1 and 2. It is currently available electronically at http://www.mcnuttwebsite. com as a professional education service (no charge, no password or user ID required, and no advertising) to colleagues. The purpose of the DIGEST is to help food and nutrition professions know what magazines are writing, not only about nutrition science but also about the broader context within which people make food choices. Depending on what magazines write, articles are grouped within DIGEST pages under several content headings.
Content reviewed here has been selected because of its relevance to the titles of other chapters in this special issue of Innovation: Management, Policy and Practice. These articles primarily appeared under DIGEST headings such as nutraceuticals, new products, industry matters, heart health and cancer, food safety, labelling, agriculture, surveys, reviews and food science but might also have been under other headings such as diabetes, dental, kids, women, mothers, seniors/ ageing, or obesity, dieting and fitness.
Articles in the DIGEST are not critiqued and, due to the purpose of this publication, the editor does not necessarily agree with all content. Emphasis is given to recent research and controversial topics. Content frequently is drawn from magazine sections clearly designated for health and nutrition information but, when relevant, may have appeared in personal-advice columns, book reviews, true-life stories, and even cartoons and jokes.
The DIGEST is not a quantitative database. If several magazines write about a new topic concurrently, the cluster of these articles often comprises that month's DIGEST cover story. However, later articles on the same topic are not included unless their content offers a perspective not presented earlier.
A final but important concept: be careful not to assume that consumers believe everything they read in magazines any more than you believe everything you hear on the nightly news. Furthermore, even if someone believes an article content that does not necessarily mean that they act upon that information. Although no data support this hypothesis, it is reasonable to assume that consumers just factor in information from magazines along with what they get off the internet, what they read in advertisements, and many other sources including what they learned from their mothers.
LESSONS FOR AND LEARNINGS FROM CONSUMERS
Magazines frequently try to help their readers deal with 'headlines hype' related to hot topics or controversial information. The best recent example is coverage of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Study results released in early 2006. Magazines were not able to pick up the story until May issues, but many did that month and for several months thereafter. Writers, with the help of experts interviewed, dipped more deeply into the findings and explained why the data did not support the Eat-All-the-Fat-You-Wish headlines found in the fast press. Furthermore, rather than criticising the scientific community for true-today false-tomorrow, magazines used the WHI study as an opportunity to explain to readers how food-related knowledge grows. For example, topics included learnings from changed advice over the last decade (CHT) and what to do when advice changes (CLT). Other magazines explained how to read a research report (ME), how to access research (MOR) and the 'anti-hype rules' learned over many years by a career journalist (TP).
Similarly, magazines often help consumers put 'scary news' into perspective. Titles have included 'Scare factor foods--What the research really means to you' (OP), 'What to worry about and what not' (SF), 'Your real lifetime risks' (HE) and 'Balancing risks with your eyes wide open' (EW). Another way magazines help their readers interpret health-related research reports is that almost every month at least one magazine will recommend reliable websites for health information, often providing criteria for how to evaluate the trustworthiness of internet information.
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