Abstract:

Two years after the October 1987 launch of the Italian edition of the women's monthly Marie Claire, product of the collaboration between Arnoldo Mondadori Editore and the French publisher Marie Claire Album (Prouvost Group), the title has, on the one hand, obtained very successful circulation (about 170 copies) , while, on the other hand, obtaining a very low number of readers per copy (about 3.5 with respect to about 6.5 readers per copy of the title's main competitor Elle and also in relation to the whole segment of high-target women's weeklies, which float between over 10 readers per copy for Arnica and around 7 readers per copy for Grazia, Gioia and Anna). This paper will describe the main results of a monthly editorial monitor (a nationwide telephone survey carried out among purchasers of each issue). The results show a unique relationship between the magazine and its target (high overall evaluation, many articles read, long time spent reading each issue, strong habit of collecting the issues, etc.). The paper will clearly demonstrate that the "total number of readers" is not the only way of evaluating media performance and that measurement of the quality of the Magazine/Target relationship can be improved. This is obviously the case when a low number of readers per copy (Marie Claire) is clearly due to the very high involvement between the magazine and its target.