In the age of specialization, magazines have further delineated readers along ever-narrowing age lines, appealing more and more to very young and to older readers, groups often ignored by mainstream television.

The first children’s magazines appeared in New England in the late 1700s. Ever since, magazines such as Youth’s Companion, Boy’s Life (the Boy Scouts’ national publication since 1912), Highlights for Children, and Ranger Rick have successfully targeted preschool and elementary-school children. The ad-free and subscription-only Highlights for Children topped the children’s magazine category in 2013, with a circulation of more than two million.

In the popular arena, the leading female teen magazines have shown substantial growth; the top magazine for thirteen- to nineteen-year-olds is Seventeen, with a circulation of two million in 2013. Several established magazines responded to the growing popularity of the teen market by introducing specialized editions, such as Teen Vogue and Girl’s Life. (For a critical take on women’s fashion magazines, see “Media Literacy and the Critical Process: Uncovering American Beauty”.)

Targeting young men in their twenties, Maxim, launched in 1997, was one of the fastest–growing magazines of the late 1990s, leveling off with a circulation of 2.5 million by 2005. Maxim’s covers boast the magazine’s obsession with “sex, sports, beer, gadgets, clothes, fitness,” a content mix that helped it eclipse rivals like GQ and Esquire. But by 2007, the lad fad had worn off, and Maxim closed its U.K. edition and downsized its U.S. staff.

In targeting audiences by age, the most dramatic success has come from magazines aimed at readers over age fifty, America’s fastest-growing age segment. These publications have tried to meet the cultural interests of older Americans, who historically have not been prominently featured in mainstream consumer culture. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and its magazine, AARP The Magazine, were founded in 1958 by retired California teacher Ethel Percy Andrus. Subscriptions to the bimonthly AARP The Magazine and the monthly AARP Bulletin come free when someone joins AARP and pays the modest membership fee ($16 in 2013). By the early 1980s, AARP The Magazine’s circulation approached seven million. However, with the AARP signing up thirty thousand new members each week by the late 1980s, both AARP The Magazine and the newsletter overtook TV Guide and Reader’s Digest as the top circulated magazines. By 2013, both had circulations of nearly twenty-two million, far surpassing the circulations of all other magazines. Article topics in the magazine cover a range of lifestyle, travel, money, health, and entertainment issues, such as sex at age fifty-plus, secrets for spectacular vacations, and how poker can give you a sharper mind.