Readability of advertising and editorial copy in Time and ^INewsweek^R

An investigation was made of the readability of pre-war and post-war advertising and editorial copy in the 2 national news-weeklies, Time and Newsweek The Flesch formulae for reading ease and human interest were used. A trend was found toward more difficult advertising copy, though only in Time was this significant. A trend toward easier-to-read editorial copy was found, but only in Newsweek was this significant. In both magazines, advertising copy was found to be easier to read than editorial copy. With regard to human interest, Time magazine was found to be significantly more interesting than Newsweek both with regard to advertising copy and editorial copy.