Saturday, July 14, 2007

Librarian of Congress reads no magazines

The head honcho at the US Library of Congress, after 20 years in the job, says he wastes no time reading magazines. Periodicals, bah. There's barely enough time to skim "The Week". James H Billington, who considers himself the knowledge navigator for the nation, confessed:
"I don't have time to read magazines. I have three or four friends around the country, and they send me, irregularly, things they think I ought to read. They know my interests...with TV news, I avoid the drivel stories. I switch immediately when it turns to Britney Spears or these other ridiculous things."

No wonder they say ours is a dying industry.

Yet magazines saw an increase in ad spending for the first half of this year, thanks mainly to the drugs and remedies category, which scored double-digit revenue and page growth, at 17 and 11 percent, respectively. Blame the aging baby boomers with their aches and pains.

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