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Spread 5.1Rates checked July 2026

Magazines vs digital advertising

The sourced print side first: the one published national card prices its audience at $31.67 per thousand copies.[1] The digital side of this comparison lives in your own ad account, and we will not paste an invented "average digital CPM" next to a real card to force a verdict. Most sites comparing these channels sell one of them. We sell neither.

The magazine page

Attention. One reader, one page, no competing tabs; shelf life measured in weeks. The industry factbook material makes the long-engagement case, publisher-funded as it is.[2]

Targeting. By title and edition: audience selected by what they choose to read.

Measurement. Instrumented, not native: codes, vanity URLs, QR, matched markets (Step 09).

Cost shape. High per thousand, low frequency-of-exposure waste; the impression cannot be skipped by a bot.

The digital impression

Attention. Milliseconds by default; earned attention costs premium formats and frequency.

Targeting. Behavioral and intent-level, the channel's structural advantage.

Measurement. Native and instant, and flattered by last-click attribution wherever print or brand assists exist.

Cost shape. Low per thousand on paper; your own account's CPM and CAC are the only numbers worth using here.

Across the foldWrong question: which is cheaper per thousand. Right question: what does a qualified response cost from each, measured on your own data. For a digital-native brand the test is one regional print flight, fully instrumented, judged against your account's marginal CAC at current spend, where rising auction costs bite hardest.

Work your numbers: the CPM desk. Other channels: newspapers, direct mail, podcasts. Evidence both directions: print ROI.

Sources on file

  1. [1]Reader's Digest 2026 Media Kit, Trusted Media Brands. 2026 rate card, published October 2025. Retrieved 2026-07-31. Evidences: Reader's Digest full-page and half-page 4-color gross rates, 1,400,000 rate base, RD Large Print rates and 175,000 circulation.
  2. [2]MPA, the Association of Magazine Media. Ongoing industry body; publisher-funded. Retrieved 2026-07-31. Evidences: Magazine Media Factbook and effectiveness material; treat as the industry's own case, flagged as publisher-funded.