Female readers of fashion and beauty magazines keep getting richer -- at least according to the latest Mediamark Research data. W magazine again has proven that its readers can afford the high-priced fashion it purveys, as it has the highest median household income among women readers, at $104,057, according to MRI's report for spring 2007. Yet it may come as a surprise to many that Lucky came in second, with a median income of $87,013. "If you don't have a lot of money, you won't be happy reading this magazine," said Sandy Golinkin, Lucky's vice president and publisher. "We've always said we have more affluent readers than most people expect." A year ago, she said editor in chief Kim France conducted focus groups and learned that readers craved more luxury items. Predictably, this translated into adding higher price points inside the shopping title. "What we do [internal research] pretty closely matches MRI," said Golinkin.
But this hasn't always been the case for other fashion-beauty titles. Nina Lawrence, vice president and publisher of W, said MRI's spring 2007 numbers present an accurate account of who its readers are. MRI reports the median income of the magazine's female readers is up roughly 28 percent over spring 2006.
