16 March 2009

Numerically Challenged

There they are. Staring back at you at the supermarket checkout, the bookstore magazine rack, the local newsstand. Countless numbers of, well, numbers!



It seems like you can't look at a magazine cover these days without your eye immediately going to the digits. "365 New Looks for Fall" - "679 Ways to Lose the Weight" - "12,000 Travel Destinations to See Before You Die" - you get the idea.

Editors say this kind of thing works, and readers agree. Apparently, customers - especially in England where 80% of magazine sales are made at the newsstand - respond positively to the numbers hype. Even if it's all part of a game.

No one actually tallies all of the touted tips and tricks. Editors take a look at a few sample pages and extrapolate from there based on how many editorial pages are in the magazine.

Which is actually a much more scientific approach than what I have been using for my 100th, 200th, 300th, and now 400th post! But now you see where I got the idea.

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