On my daily commute to school I pass numerous Kiosks. It is at these Kiosks that most Spaniards buy their magazines. I have learned that the majority of Spaniards are pick up readers, meaning that they pick up magazines from time to time rather than subscribe to one in particular. I think that this is increasingly the case in the U.S as well. Several times over the past few weeks I have picked up magazines from these Kiosks. First was “Madrid-Deluxe”, which I studied for the in class presentation. The magazine was geared towards the elite of Madrid and wealthy tourists. The magazine seemed fairly similar to any “City Mag” that you would find in a metropolitan American city advertising the finest that that city has to offer. Although I enjoyed reading the magazine with its glossy pages and interesting feature stories on Madrid hot-spots; I was definitely not the audience the magazine was trying to reach. Not only was it not geared towards me I don’t think it was geared toward your average Madrileno either. I also picked up Elle. I was shocked to see how much thicker the magazine was than the American version. I also received a free tube of lipstick. Many of the other magazines at the kiosk also gave readers free gifts. According to my Spanish friend, during the summer the free gifts are even bigger; sometimes a bikini or a pair of flip flops. Of course these are purely promotional, and I soon learned that the thickness of the magazine was also due to promotional samples of products and many more advertisements. The reason for this being, that the websites for these Spanish magazines are not as popular as the English versions; thus, the majority of the advertising is done in the magazine, rather than divided between magazine and website. I have also read the magazine Hola, because my host “sister” often buys it at the Kiosk. Hola is one of the most popular weekly magazines in Madrid. It is a great example of what many Spaniards call, “Prensa Rosa” (Pink Press) or Prensa del Corazon” (Press of the Heart). These magazines are essentially gossip magazines and are much more popular with women. They are fairly similar to American gossip magazines that contain little text and mainly focus on the images and gossip of celebrities. Much of the magazine Hola focuses on the Spanish Royal family, European royalty, and international entertainment stars. Since the most popular magazines in Spain are all gossip magazines, I can assume that Spanish readers prefer light escapist reading when they pick up a magazine.
