When everyone else rushed up to the table and grabbed a copy of one of the magazines Professor Butler had brought, I hung back and waited for the chaos to clear before I took one of the leftover publications.
What was left? All business-themed magazines. While I find the business world interesting, I would in no way ever consider subscribing to a monthly business magazine like Inc.com Magazine, the one that I picked up solely because Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets, was on the cover. And that's what got me thinking.
That's the clear allure of the magazine industry itself, as opposed to what brings someone to a particular magazine, whether it be the quality and style of writing, photography or design. People go to magazines in general because they're targeted to a specific niche. While a newspaper targets either a specific locale or large populace, a magazine seeks out those interested in a specific topic.
In a newspaper, those interested in sports are limited to either a pullout or the back few pages. Anyone interested in theater gets Arts and Leisure or the features section. But there are no limits in a single magazine devoted to those topics. The entire issue is devoted to discussing the topic of choice and at hand.
What appeals to one person doesn't necessarily appeal to another. They can dive right into their interests with no distractions (in this case, stories about things the reader is uninterested in). A business magazine may not necessarily "allure" me, but it does plenty of other people. Quite frankly, I would have rather had gotten my hands on Time or People.
That's what makes the industry so great: choice. Those who got to the table earliest had the greatest number of choices. But that's not essentially how the real industry works. You can always buy another copy.
So, Inc.com didn't allure me. The thought of my disinterest in it did.
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