Readership Profile
 

Who Reads Varsity?

Varsity's Primary Readership: Student-Athletes & Parents

 

Student-Athletes

Teens don’t respond to marketing that treats them like children but they do respond, it just takes the right message and vehicle. Once teens discover their "first" car, bank, or even a pair of shoes they enjoy, a bond is formed and typically they remain loyal, in many cases, for a lifetime.

  • Eight out of 10 teens read magazines (Neopets Youth Study, 2004).
  • 75% of all young adults said magazines are where they find “must-have” stuff
    (BPM Newsletter, March 2000).
  • Teens are the largest, most diverse consumer group in the history of the United States.
  • As a group, teens earn 63% of their income independently from their parents and spend it on brands they know and trust.
  • Teens who read magazines are more influential in household purchases (MRI Teenmark, 2003).
  • Teens who are heavy magazine readers are more likely to be brand loyal across a variety of product categories (MRI Teenmark, 2003).

Varsity is a niche magazine that targets teens who play high school sports, and Varsity reaches student-athletes by glorifying their hard-work and accomplishments, by discussing issues that relate to their lives, and by giving them a learning environment in which they can improve their writing, editing, and photography skills. In Varsity Magazine, student-athletes see themselves, their friends, and their universe captured in a Sports Illustrated-styled yearbook, that 97 percent of Varsity’s readers will “keep/hold on to.” (See Varsity’s “Reader Demographic Profile" page.)

 

Parents

Once teens have been affected by marketing, they’ll typically need their parents’ money to buy a product or service. Through 17,800 subscriptions, you can be assured that your advertisement will be placed in the hands of people who can afford to buy your business’s products and services: Vermont’s and New Hampshire’s educated and affluent adult population—the parents of student-athletes.

 

Fact: Youth with better-educated parents are far more likely to participate in high school sports. Among 10th grade students, 72% of athletes had a parent who attended graduate school (Child Trends Databank, 2002).

 

Fact: Households with student-athletes have an average annual income of $64,500.

33% of all households with student-athletes have incomes of $75,000 or more (American Sports Data, Inc., 2000).

 

Varsity appeals to parents in two different but equally effective ways:   

1. Student-athletes drive their interest: teens take Varsity home and share their accomplishments and their world with mom and dad.  

2. Parents of student-athletes are an invested, dedicated partner in their child’s athletic life: they spend thousands of dollars on camps and equipment, they awake at 5 a.m. to drive their child to practice, they attend every game, and they are intrinsically interested in a magazine that celebrates and promotes their child’s accomplishments. (See Varsity’s “Reader Profiles” page.)