Will All Men Love Model Railways When They’re Old?

I was looking through a magazine for old ladies the other day.  Not in a sinister way, you understand – I wasn’t scanning for incontinence bras or ogling the side-entry baths.  In fact, my mother writes for some of these magazines, and I was reading one of her contributions.  Anyway, when I picked up the copy in question, I noticed that, in spite of the relative demise of magazines, there were still a few ones for the older woman around on the shelves.  And at the same time, I also noticed that there weren’t any equivalent for the older man.

Of course, we never really think about older men reading much at all, except perhaps biographies of Winston Churchill or the racing pages of the newspaper.  However, if you do actually think about it, there must be some old chaps who do buy magazines.  But as to what these might be about, a brief look seems to indicate that they all concern some or other specific issue, such as model railways, real ale or birdwatching.  There don’t seem to be any magazines that are just for old men in general, in the way that there are still many such publications for grannies.  There is The Oldie in the UK for older people, and I suspect its readership is fairly male biased, but even it is, to some extent, about something – i.e. being old – and not just a general interest magazine for older people.

And it seems to me that this contrasts quite strongly with the magazine buying of younger men.  Look at all the magazines devoted to them and their lives that are available.  Every age is catered for – from Nuts to FHM to Esquire to GQ – but then it all stops at about 50-years-old.  After that, you’re into hobby territory or looking at investments.  And that younger half of the population is going to get old soon enough, and they’ll live longer than ever before, and they’ll want to keep reading.

So my point (if I have one this week – indeed, if I ever have one) is: what will men’s magazines (in whatever space-age form those publications take by that time) look like by the time today’s swaggering hipster has worn his hip joints through swaggering and hobbles to his (digital) newsagents?  Will these readers have naturally evolved an interest in trains, ale and birdwatching, just as older men seem to gravitate nowadays towards beige?  Or will there be mainstream mags for them by then, featuring a corpulent Leonardo di Caprio interviewed tubbily in his Sonoma vineyard home, or Rafael Nadal test-driving a new prostate implant, or a free illustrated guide to melanoma spotting?

Whatever the magazines of the future are like, they’ll have to cater to men of all ages.  And they’ll have to have more than features on “00″ gauge models of the Flying Scotsman and recipes for pea-pod wine in them.

Contact the author here: thewhy@morningquickie.com