But nobody's doing much about any of it. Magazine publishers, on the other hand, play market research like virtuosi. Once you accept that, you're going to want to work with your marketing. The research you receive ought to give you a focus and make you a better editor. The danger comes when you get so close to advertising people that they get to dictate what you run.
Magazines start with focus groups, which are considered essential for developing a new publication.
Some magazines hold focus groups at least four times a year to hear a sampling of real readers, to confirm what editors already believe. If what they're hearing is at odds with that, it's a sign to look harder. The same goes for a more edit-centered and widely used research tool, the mail questionnaire, which aims to pin down what departments in a magazine are working. A magazine like YM or Teen People, for example, might send out 400 to 1,000 questionnaires to subscribers to determine the audience's relative interest in beauty, fashion, health, relationships, and so on. You wind up intuiting less and less.