Consumers do avoid TV ads, sure, but magazine ads are part of the experience

A  blog post from The New Yorker talks about the propensity of people to avoid ads, which is undoubtedly true on TV (what most commentators continue to mean when they refer to "media".) By being selective, the argument goes, and using tools such as TiVO and Netflix, consumers are placing a price on their attention. All of which is very interesting, but ignores the fact that, unlike on TV, advertising in magazines is actually part of the reading experience and the enjoyment. 

Magazine readers expect certain kinds of advertising in certain kinds of magazines and would find it weird were it not there (cruise lines in a travel magazine, packaged goods a women's service magazine, clothing ads, accessories and scents in fashion magazines). Rather than being a interruption or a distraction, it is part of the ecosystem. For an example, a 2007 study (available on the Magazines Canada website) says consumers are most receptive to magazine advertising of all media. Far from avoiding it, they expect it and like it. The same point was made in a recent  MC Connections presentation: