“Real Simple” builds the case that boomers are readily targeted by their passions/needs and interests more so than identifying with either age or generation. In the case of “Real Simple”, the magazine has brilliantly identified the fact that there are women from multiple generations, but with a decidedly uptick in the direction of the boomer demo, who crave what the magazine promises: “all about making life easier.”

For this particular reader, there is no knee-jerk reaction against seeing a young woman posing with her three pre-school-aged children under the headline “The Organizer.” I think—hum, could be something I’d like to share with my daughter. And meanwhile, learn something for myself in reading it.

And then turn the page (page ten of the fat September ’07 edition) there’s something simply labeled “thoughts.” A photo of a bare-chested, gray-haired not in such great shape really “older” guy playfully flexing “muscles” while his adoring equally not-More-hip wife looks on. The quote that accompanies this picture is by Edith Wharton: “In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive along past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.”

Who knows, perhaps the 30-somethings in search of simpler recipes and the latest boots flipped right past this. But I prefer to think that all women, 20’s to 70’s and beyond, of a certain mentality, can appreciate the various stages of life, share certain values (i.e. simplicity) and a shared joie de vivre, all in one magazine.

And I’d have to say that the growing number of ads and pages in “Real Simple”, not to mention subscribers and readers, suggests that this is one preference that the numbers support.

Carol Orsborn