Popular Mechanics is... er... popular

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It's that word "mechanics" that's the curve ball and I often wonder by how much its sales would increase if it were called Popular Gizmos/Gadgetsandbloodygoodideas. Not that Popular Mechanics isn't an extremely successful and... er... popular magazine, but I just get the feeling that consumers and advertisers particularly have completely the wrong idea about it.

Incredible info

So much so, that I phoned the editor and former colleague, Alan Duggan, who agreed with me. He also passed on some quite extraordinary readership research information that I must say left me completely agog. In fact, if I hadn't known Alan for so long, I might well have tended toward aghast.

Did you know, he asked me, that people who read Popular Mechanics actually also use deodorants?

Unbelievable, I thought. Next thing he's going to tell me that they wear watches, drink scotch and fine wines and that many of them are women.

Women, by Jove!

Duggan looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was listening and whispered, "And you know what? Popular Mechanics readers wear watches, drink scotch and fine wines and many of them are women..."

I know that, I said. Because one of the best DIY tips I have ever got was out of Popular Mechanics - it has this back page full of the quite remarkable tips from readers. It was about sprinkling bicarbonate of soda on the broken joint on a chair leg and then adding superglue to make a bond that would keep the joint firmly in place until at least a millennium or two. And it was sent in by a woman.

Popular Mechanics is not alone of course. There are all sorts of other magazines, newspapers, radio and TV programmes that are perceived to be the territory of a certain group of consumers while, back at the ranch, the reality is that there are a lot of others involved as well.

Gold in them geriatrics

Not to mention, of course, that over-50 age group that almost all advertisers are convinced don't ever buy anything or don't have any money; yet in reality oldies punch way above their weight when it comes to buying stuff. Including cellphones, I might add, that nowadays seemed to be aimed exclusively at 10-year-olds.

One of the reasons I have singled out Popular Mechanics is because I am a great believer in the influence of quality content on a magazine's success. And for decades now, this magazine has maintained superb content that, in my opinion, not only appeals to ordinary people who can't hit nails into wood without whacking their thumbs but also to those who are extremely DIY-competent or even rocket scientists and technology junkies.

Fascinating facts

• Popular Mechanics is one of the few magazines to show a steady increase in circulation while other consumer titles decline. The current ABC is 42 998 (January - March 2009). And that's only single-copy sales. After seven years on the market, Popular Mechanics has firmly established itself as the voice of science and technology in South Africa.

• The PM website at www.popularmechanics.co.za is one of the most visited in its stable. It's interactive and vibrant, featuring the latest sci-tech news, RSS feeds, videos and wallpapers, discussion forums, blogs, regular competitions, cool gadgets and interesting facts.

• Each week, PM emails a newsletter called “The Cutting Edge” to more than 25 000 opt-in subscribers and features one of the highest click-through rates in the industry.

• A glance at the AMPS figures will show that Popular Mechanics readers are well-educated, have an extremely high personal and household income (in fact, it's worth doing a comparison with competing titles), drink good wine and top-class whisky, and generally live the good life. They're also the quintessential early adopters, snapping up new technology with alacrity and also cars, bikes, watches and other interesting stuff).

• On 25 - 27 September 2009, PM will be assembling some of South Africa's sharpest minds at the inaugural Popular Mechanics Inventors Conference in Johannesburg. The programme will feature lectures by experts in a number of critical fields, from patents and intellectual property rights to venture capital, computer-aided design, rapid prototyping, industrial design, injection moulding, financing and marketing, as well as hosted exhibits encompassing these and other disciplines.

As I said, it's quite popular.