Media kits

Media kits are packages of information about the consumers of a particular media property, such as Rolling Stone magazine. Media kits are used by media buyers at advertising agencies to make their decisions about where to spend their advertising dollars. They are also the tool of the advertising sales representatives at the magazines, who use media kits to sell their magazine's audience to those media buyers.

There are approximately 13,000 magazines in print at any time in the U.S. How does a media buyer choose which ones to buy ads in? By studying the audience demographics as described in the media kit, then choosing those publications whose audiences most closely match the target market for whatever it is they are advertising.

Most magazines have a website. To find the media kit, first go to their website, then scroll down to the bottom and look for the link that says something like "Advertise with us" or "Advertising information." It might even say "media kit." Here are a few direct links to magazines' media kit page:

Rolling Stone
Us Weekly
Vanity Fair
Chill magazine