Tom Benson is publisher for Midwest Living, Meredith Corp.'s newest subscription magazine in Des Moines, Iowa. Benson has been publisher of Meredith's custom publishing arm, Meredith Publishing Services, since 1983. Before joining Meredith, Benson spent 24 years as an executive with the Webb Co., St. Paul, Minn. Benson is a journalism graduate of Iowa State University and has completed the Program for Management Development from the Harvard Business School.
 
Ray Deaton is editorial research director for Better Homes & Gardens magazine, a position he has held since 1972. Better Homes & Gardens is published in Des Moines, Iowa, by Meredith Corp. Deaton is responsible for all research functions for the magazine's editorial content and circulation and participates actively in the research and backgrounding of major articles and series. Deaton also handles research for Better Homes & Gardens book marketing. Prior to his employment at Meredith, Deaton worked in Tokyo for four years as a military intelligence analyst. He is a 1951 graduate of Drake University, Des Moines, and holds a B.A. in business administration.
 
Dan Kaercher is editor of Meredith Corp.'s Midwest Living magazine. Kaercher has worked as head of the health and education department for Better Homes & Gardens. He has also been editor of Better Homes & Gardens Remodeling Ideas. Most recently, he has been managing editor of WOOD magazine. In addition to his job responsibilities, Kaercher has been working with Meredith's American family questionnaire for the past seven years, the new magazine development committee and spearheaded a series of editorial seminars. Kaercher graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha with a B.A. in journalism.

The Meredith Corp., based in Des Moines, Iowa, has a number of well-known magazine tides including, Better Homes & Gardens, Successful Farming, Country Home, and WOOD.

Thus they were aware of what it would take to research and successfully introduce a new Midwestern regional magazine called Midwest Living which is patterned after Sunset, Southern Living and Yankee. Research sources included secondary research data from the Census Bureau, periodicals, and academic/literary writings concerning regionalism in the Midwest; syndicated research results from several leading market research organizations defining demographic characteristics of the region as well as specific product and service usage; focus groups; and mail surveys. From initial research on the concept to the first issue being delivered to the reader took about two years.

The idea for this publication came from Clem Sevde, circulation manager. He had noticed the surge in the number of city and regional magazines and believed there was a void in the Midwest. He passed the idea on to the management group at Meredith who approved researching the concept. Responsibility for this phase was given to the editorial research department of the company headed by Ray Deaton.

Defining the area

The first item researchers had to define was the geographic area the publication would serve. The population within this geographic boundary had to have a strong sense of regionalism to show potential reader interest, provide a sufficiently large population base to support the magazine concept as well as attract the attention of specialized and regionally-focused advertisers.

Census data and regional literary sources were used to provide some of the pertinent information. For more than a century the Midwest has been understood as a distinctive territory with its geographic center moving slowly west-ward. Today, for all practical purposes it is comprised of 12 of the states of the North Central region ranging from Ohio and Michigan on the east to the Dakotas and Kansas on the west.

In many respects the Midwest regions matches or parallels the nation. It contains about 60 million people, and nearly 22 million households. Each of these figures is 25% of the U.S. total. The marriage rate is the same as the national figure and the percentage of residents living in larger cities is proportionate to the country as a whole. However, more people tend to live outside metropolitan areas; married couples are more likely to have children; and a higher percentage of them own their homes.

Although this secondary research defined the theoretical boundaries of the region it was important that the people within the area itself identify with the region and have developed what anthropologists term a "consciousness of kind" about their identity.

The editorial research department at Meredith conducted two original studies in conjunction with developing this concept. The first step in the process was qualitative research using focus group interviews. The second, more quantitative step, was a mailed questionnaire, based on the results of the initial investigation. In addition to garnering information on regional identity, both phases of these processes were used to provide additional information for editorial and circulation purposes.

Focus groups

Meredith had four focus groups conducted in Midwestern communities of varying locale and size. The total sample of interviewees was only 41 people, but their opinions about the make-up of the region and their orientations toward it showed remarkable consistency.

At the beginning of the sessions participants were asked to mark on a small U.S. map as many states as they felt to be "part of the Midwest." Overall, 86% of their total choices were states in the North Central Census region. When people included states outside the Census region, they were virtually always adjacent to the state in which the participant lived. For example, some people in both Illinois and Ohio included Kentucky in the Midwest while some in Kansas included Oklahoma or Colorado.

Upon being shown a shaded map delineating the 12 North Central states as being the "Midwest," the consensus was that most of the 12 states have important common characteristics. The discussion revealed that these people felt "closer to" residents of states within the Midwest than they did to people in other parts of the country. Although most participating in the study indicated that their primary identification was local or statewide, there still was a remarkable consistency in their mention of characteristics which make the region distinct.

In response to open-ended questions about physical features of the Midwest, participants most often mentioned the quality of the soil, the crops, the terrain (lakes, rivers and woods) and especially the change of seasons. Open spaces, wide horizons, and uncrowded conditions were repeatedly stressed positively. Most participants described the Midwest as though factories did not exist. Pastoral and agrarian images were far more common than urban and industrial themes.

Participants also believed there were qualities of the people in the Midwest which were somewhat unique. They described themselves as hard-working, honest, cautious about but open to strangers, and extremely friendly and helpful. The pace of life was another regularly identified quality. Most of the participants were willing to admit that in some ways the Midwest lags behind the rest of society, but they shared this observation without apology, and with a sense of modesty and pride.

An important impression of the study is that people think of their way of life as something of a "best kept secret." They believe themselves to be misunderstood by "easterners and Californians," but they are secure in believing their life is richer and more fulfilling. They see their values, i.e. work, family and closeness to the land, as enduring. They believe the quality of life they enjoy to be second to none, and maybe better than the rest. Their conservatism is evident, but has very little political cast; it is more nearly an emotional stability, a sense of tradition, that provides its own rewards.

Quantitative study

A mailed questionnaire was con-ducted across the 12-state region, sampling households by means of the best available direct-mail lists to test the hypothesis found in the focus groups. Despite the length of the questionnaire (11 pages), a return rate of 44% was obtained from the mailing of slightly more than 2,500.

The results tended to confirm the items relevant to Midwestern regionalism. In a written exercise identical to that used in the focus groups, the 12 states of the North Central region were the 12 most commonly chosen. Further, when asked to what extent they consider the Midwest to be distinct from other regions of the country, almost three-quarters (74%) said it was "clearly distinct" or "somewhat distinct."

As a follow-up question, respondents were given a check-list of eleven descriptive factors about the region, and asked to designate as many as they felt were distinctive traits. "The focus on agriculture" was cited by 59% of the sample, closely followed by "our values and attitudes" designated by 58%, and "the people who live in this region," chosen by 53%.

Another question asked about physical features of the Midwest, and the most frequently chosen as best describing the Midwest were "changing sea-sons" (82%), "a mixture of agriculture and industry" (81%), and "rich soil and bountiful crops" (57%). Aside from the emphasis here on industry, these results were quite consistent with the impressions from the earlier, qualitative study.

Also, in keeping with the focus group findings, the questionnaire results revealed a number of positive personal qualities attributed to Midwestern people. Fully 80% of the sample selected "hard-working" as a trait, and 73% described Midwesterners as "friendly and helpful." Third on the list was "family-oriented," chosen by 69% of the sample. Negative traits were seldom chosen: "Unsophisticated" (19%), "hard to get to know" (8%), and "narrow-minded" (6%). It is interesting to note that, despite 42% of the sample residing in metropolitan areas with 100,000 people or more, only 8% characterized Midwesterners as "urban-oriented."

Perhaps the most revealing dimension of regional consciousness emerging from the mailed questionnaire came from questions measuring respondents' judgments about the quality of life in the Midwest. Ten different indices were employed. Respondents were asked whether the quality of life was "better in the Midwest," was "about the same," or was "better in other regions." Table 1 is a list in rank-ordering of these factors, with both positive and negative scores revealed.

Thus, it is evident that this large and diverse sample of Midwesterners thinks very highly of the quality of life they enjoy. While recognizing that some opportunities (cultural advantages and employment) are better elsewhere, they rate their region strongly.

Thus the results of this initial research using primary and secondary sources provided the evidence that the "Midwest" does exist in the minds of its residents and that the group of people represented in this area provided a sufficient base to go forward in the development of a publication.

After it had been established that the basics were there to support a regional magazine, the research focused on the three elements necessary to establish a successful venture. These were editorial, circulation and advertising. In order for the publication to reach its potential as quickly as possible, it was important that the editorial content be of interest to the prospective subscriber; that the subscription request material cause a maximum number of responses at the optimum price; and that the advertising sales staff have the necessary data available to convince media buyers to add this publication to their advertising schedule.

The editorial research department at Meredith initially studied receptiveness to the idea of a regional magazine by means of qualitative focus group interviews and a quantitative mail survey. The results of these indicated a strong level of interest to proposed contents of the magazine, and a high level of willingness to buy a regional magazine for the Midwest.

To guide the editors in charge of developing the magazine concept, a total of 43 different article descriptions were tested on the mailed questionnaire, using a "weighted willingness to buy" index. The respondents were asked to rate each article in the list by checking the one among the four categories that best indicated their willingness to buy a magazine with that article. Index weights were as follows:

"Definitely would buy" 1.00

"Probably would buy" .50

"Might buy" .25

"Would not buy" .00

Index scores for the 43 article descriptions ranged from a high of 52% to a low of 14%.

The measurement technique employed in this survey was quite strict in that it asked respondents to express their willingness to buy a magazine based on the appeal of a single article description. Thus, it is quite surprising that fully 35 of the 43 items tested scored 25% ("might buy") or above.

Regional travel was the most popular subject with three of the articles relating to this subject ranking among the top five. Features relating to homes and home service also fared very well with three of these being listed among the top ten. Other topics which scored well include food/cooking, gardening, and family.

Another facet of the mailed questionnaire polled respondents as to what regular features they would most like to see included within the proposed magazine. Presented with a list of 20 departments that might appear in each issue, respondents were asked to "indicate those you would most like to find" (check all that apply). Here again, the suggestions relating to travel/outdoor recreation, home decorating/home repair, and food/cooking were listed among the most popular.

The most encouraging finding from the focus groups and the mailed survey was the interest in buying the proposed magazine. In the mailed survey, a direct question was asked about the respondent's likelihood of buying the proposed magazine. The question was, "Now that you've seen our ideas for the magazine, how would you rate its overall prospects?" Given the three answers in this type of format, the results were very encouraging:

23%    "I'll probably buy this magazine"
59%    "I'll consider this magazine further when it comes out"
14%    "I'm not likely to buy this magazine''
4%      Did not answer

100%

The results were cross-tabulated with several demographic items which had also been included on the questionnaire. The results of these cross-tabulations provided the Meredith circulation department with additional information as to those market segments which would be more favorable to subscribing and the factors which would be most appealing to them.

Syndicated research

Because the last complete Census was in 1980, supplemental data sources were employed to provide current demographic information. Some were in the public domain but much of the information was provided by syndicated studies such as the Yankelovich MONITOR and MRI. Among the salient information included was the fact that the population of the Midwest tends to be concentrated at the extremes of the residential continuum: large metropolitan areas (3,000,000 and above) and non-metro areas. The data also showed that the Midwest is much less suburban than the country as a whole. Another important difference is that the Midwest has significantly more single-person households than does the rest of the country which means there are more people in the region who make their own consumer decisions and, relative to the population, create a higher demand for certain household necessities.

Adults in the Midwest are more likely to own their own home than are adults in the country as a whole. Data also reveals that Midwesterners are more actively involved in home improvement projects than are homeowners in the U.S. overall and are more likely to do it themselves.

Finally, the syndicated reports provided additional data on product purchases by category and brand. This information was invaluable for the advertising sales staff in targeting its marketing efforts.

First issue

April, 1987, was the date of the first issue. The editorial material closely followed the results of the research. Circulation goals are being exceeded due to the response to an award-winning direct mail subscription program. And 44 pages of advertising in the inaugural issue from more than 100 advertisers are the result of hard work on the part of the sales force as well as proper use of the research data provided to them for target selling.

But Meredith has been in publishing too long to rest on its laurels. Now that the first issues have been released it is preparing follow-up studies to determine how successful the magazine has been in meeting its editorial goals. At this company, research is an ongoing process for monitoring and exploring to insure that the company's efforts stay on target. The publisher and editor plan ongoing in-magazine surveys, mail questionnaires and the use of other techniques to keep themselves in close touch with the market.