Making a Statement of Ownership

It's that time of year again, when magazines are required to publish their statement of ownership.

I love these little indicators of a magazine's health and vitality -- not only can you track top-level staff changes year to year, but you can gauge whether a magazine is on the wax or wane. Unfortunately, I don't consistently collect the statements -- or keep them all in one place -- so the comparative aspect is diminished. Regardless, even as standalones, they're worth looking for... and reading.

Take that of Yankee magazine. Published in the November issue, the statement indicates that an issue's average press run is 564,369. 474,685 people subscribe. 25,388 copies are sold on the newsstand. I don't know why, but I find numbers like that fascinating.