To ask which magazines are read by 'well-to-do' older people?

[MrsQuince]

Not really an AIBU but struggling to categorise this question. Sorry for the subterfuge!

I'm starting a new small business and my 'ideal customers' are grandparents (say 70+) from affluent households (as it's a fairly luxury price point). I think print advertising could be a good way to reach them, but I have no idea which magazines would be best. I don't have budget for The Times, FT, Telegraph just yet, so was hoping to find some smaller niche publications which have a Classifieds section.

If you or your parent/grandparent/friend/employer/great aunt Agnes falls into this category, could you please tell me which magazines they read?

Is 'The Lady' actualy read by elderly aristos, as I imagine it? Other ideas I've had: Private Eye, The Oldie, perhaps the National Trust magazine?

All suggestions much appreciated! Thank you 😊

Private Eye & the Waitrose magazine.

I am finding it hard to imagine what the product is, but I think getting into a feature in a magazine or newspaper is more important

plenty of expensive items featured in Country Living magazine and The Guardian which of course is also very popular online and has a lifestyle section that is pretty expensive generally

We read Saga magazine , the Garden,(RHS), plus the ones that come from the V and A, the British museum and the National Trust , we are 74 and 84.

It’s really not about the name of the publication. The crucial thing is how people access new information - and which forms of information are respected by your target audience. Most people use social media now - you need to be on top of how to utilise that.

The idea that I might at any time in the future pick up a printed copy of ‘The Lady’ and turn to the adverts at the back is just laughable.

Well I'm over 60 and comfortably off so to speak.

Doubt I will be much help but I buy Love It every week which I read in the bath.😂
(Love a bit of scandal!)

Definitely NOT a "Lady", "Country Life" etc. type of person.

Depending on product . WI member’s magazine. People I know have booked holidays in the uk from it, ? Quiet q lot of adverts in it

The Lady
Country Life
Sporting Times
Dog & Gun
Horse and Hound
Country Homes & Interiors
Town & Country
Country Living
Chic & Country

My parents (mid-seventies) read National Geographic, the magazine of the RSPB and their local Wildlife Trust and The Spectator.

Free WiFi.

My Dad reads Private Eye.
My Mum used to subscribe to Saga magazine. Now she's in a dementia care home, I've kept the subscription going myself as I love it!
(I'm 50!)

my ILs meet your criteria and only buy Puzzler so maybe another another angle for you OP

Gardening magazines remain popular as print titles, because of the photography.
On the basis of the importance of photography, include Top Gear. I don't know if they are your target market but they have a lots of adverts for ridiculously expensive things that would appeal to HNW.

My mum is probably your target market, very well off woman in her late 60s. I literally can’t remember the last time she would have got a magazine? Maybe 20 years ago. I think people forget the 70 year olds of today are not the 70 year olds of the 90s…

The Lady
The Oldie
Country Life
Berkshire life/Cheshire life etc
The Field
The Garden
Charity magazines eg RSPB, National Trust, English Heritage

I would say, in what would be an ironic gesture, Heat magazine.

It depends on your offering, if somewhat local then perhaps your local County Life Magazines might be suitable but if you're a start up then I'd be surprised if adverts rather than features in glossy print magazines could offer the best return on your spend. If your heart is set then perhaps go for the print that the grandchildren might read with their grand parents (First News, Pony Magazine for mostly girls and so on) but I still doubt this approach is optimal?

Yours magazine has a classified section, Womans Weekly sells quite well at work too - if I was you OP, I'd be offering one of the products as a competition prize for the magazine you are aiming to advertise in. That would draw more attention to it.

Country Life for sure.

The ‘Life’ type ones, Lancashire, Cumbria, Cheshire etc.

Yes Good Housekeeping. Dm has it and I love reading it

When my parents were still fit enough to read magazines they had subscriptions to Saga and a gardening one . I used to share Good Housekeeping with my mum .

However this was a few years back and they would have been in their 80s then. I am inclined to agree with others that people in their 70s now may do more online reading and less in-print magazines . Although I suppose if you had a classified ad in GH it would appear in both the printed and online editions .

London Review of Books
Slightly Foxed

Although I haven’t got a clue if either of those have advertising.

Parents 73 and 74 - Lady, Gardeners World and National Trust are the only magazines they get.

Thanks so much everyone for your suggestions and perspectives, this has turned out to be a fascinating thread! So much food for thought.

interesting to see some themes emerge such as GH & county mags - I hadn't considered but both clearly popular.

I'll definitely be using organic/paid social media too but was conscious there's a section of older population who don't use those sites so am wondering how to reach those folk. Perhaps they're rarer than I imagine, though?

Several PPs also gave good advice about going for press coverage over advertising. It's something I've been a bit fearful about, if I'm honest, but I know I have to get over that. I think I do have some good story angles, so I'll put some serious thought to this and pluck up courage!

Thanks again everyone!

YY the Spectator
Good Housekeeping
Country Life
The colour supplements of the Saturday and Sunday Telegraph, FT and Times.
And finally (and rather randomly), ‘Boundless’, the magazine of the CSMA whose readers have VERY good pensions