X-Message-Number: 4220 Date: 16 Apr 95 16:03:27 EDT From: Jim Davidson <> Subject: Omni Magazine Last I checked, Omni has a circulation of around 900,000 subscribers and newsstand readers. With issues passed among family members and friends, that circulation figure is usually at least doubled to define "readership." Thus, a well-written article on cryonics (or any topic) in Omni would be seen by about 2 million people, maybe more. The same is true of Discover, Popular Science, and Forbes as well as many other magazines. National Geographic claimed a readership of 10 million last I heard, and Scientific American a readership of about 400,000. I don't have the figures handy, so I can't say whether these numbers were claimed subscribers/newsstand sales, or the usual multiple of those figures. The point is that when dealing with very large circulation magazines, the marketing statistics of large numbers becomes important. Advertising budgets are predicated on the idea that a certain number of impressions per reader or viewer (or listener in the case of radio) will generate a certain number of sales. For our purposes, a figure of around 1.5% to 2% is reasonable as representing the percentage of all readers who would take an interest in following up to find more information. The figure is actually better for news articles than for advertisements, but lets use the lower number and see where that leads. Assuming an article in Omni is seen by 2 million people, about 30,000 people can be expected to seek additional information. From my understanding of the cryonics movement, on the order of 1,000 people are presently signed up with various organizations in the US. On the order of 10,000 people are currently in contact with a cryonics organization and receiving information. (Note that I do not use the phrase "on the close order of...") So with 30,000 people getting interested, we can say that an article in Omni or any magazine with a comparable circulation would be a significant thing for the cryonics movement. If we further assume that 2% of those seeking additional information will sign up within the subsequent 2 years (which may be high, but is an interesting statistic to evaluate), then another 600 sign-ups can be expected. That represents a great deal of money to the cryonics organizations involved. Sounds like at least a few people should spend at least some of their time turning their writing skills toward generating such articles. With Omni paying around $800 for 1,500 words last I heard, both the author and the cryonics groups that provide data should benefit immensely. (BTW, Omni is going quarterly according to a rumor I've heard, so they seem to be using articles in-hand for the next few issues...but that will change.) If you haven't noticed, my hand is up whenever volunteers are sought for writing such articles. Jim Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4220