What You’re Reading

I linked to this in the last edition of Quotable Country, but decided it deserves its own post. According to MRI, one of the leading US market research firms, these are the ten most popular magazines among self-identified country music fans. The number following each title is the percentage of that magazine’s readers who call themselves country fans.

1. Country Weekly 100
2. Ducks Unlimited 76.7
3. American Hunter 68.5
4. Hunting 67.8
5. Four Wheeler 64.6
6. North American Hunter 64.1
7. Field & Stream 62.9
8. Country Sampler 61.2
9. Outdoor Life 61
10. Game & Fish 60.8

For 11-50, see the article at Country Hound.

If this survey is to be believed, many of the stereotypes about country fans are pretty much true. We live to hunt, fish, and four-wheel.

However, it’s important to note that this is not a list of what most country fans are reading; it’s a list of publications that predominantly attract country fans. Even if more country fans are reading People or TIME than Ducks Unlimited, those magazines won’t appear here because they have such large readerships that even a big country contingent will be dwarfed by all the other groups reading along with them. Of course, there are also all the problems associated with self-reporting, including varying perceptions of what constitutes ‘country music’ – a term used to include and exclude everyone from Chuck Wicks to James Hand to Faith Hill to Chris Knight – and the common reluctance to admit to liking country music. In summary: take the list with a grain of salt.