Another wake-up message for the youth obsessed media industry. Mike Luckwell, new owner of the Readers Digest’s planning to leverage its powerful following among older consumers. He was quoted as saying that “Over-50s have a very different life than they did 20 years ago. It’s a younger type of audience with a ridiculously high proportion of the wealth and only 10% of advertising”.

This article in Marketing draws an interesting comparison between the Pink Pound (referring to the gay community) and the Grey Pound for older consumers. The author says “The vibrant London media scene is now controlled by the very people who, 20 or 30 years ago, were the targets and creators of this youth obsession”.

The article continues, “now they are in their 50s and instead of buying slippers, smoking pipes and going on cruises, they’re buying boxsets and boutique whiskies, spending a fortune on luxury holidays and engaging in evermore ridiculously immature and sweaty weekend pursuits designed to show the world that they’re still young”.