Saturday Evening Post trying to catch up to 21st century

The Saturday Evening Post, a centuries-old publication that helped make illustrator Norman Rockwell a household name and showcased some of America’s greatest writers, is returning to its roots to show readers the value of a quiet read in an increasingly frenetic digital age.

A redesign launching with its July-August issue combines the Post’s hallmarks -- art and fiction -- with folksy commentary and health articles. The revamped Post promises a more relaxing option for people who are used to doing much of their reading online, or are simply tired of special-interest magazines crammed into tight niches.

“There is a void of magazines now that do emphasize art and creative writing and fiction,” publisher Joan SerVaas said.

But industry experts say the Post -- which traces its origins to Benjamin Franklin, though it had a hiatus from 1969 to 1971 -- risks alienating its core readers while trying to buck a decades-long shift away from general-interest magazines.

“The Saturday Evening Post is no longer my father’s magazine; it’s my grandfather’s magazine,” said Samir A. Husni, who publishes an annual guide to consumer magazines as director of the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi.

Although the Post is making concessions to the digital age, through weekly updates to its website and a profile on the social-networking site Facebook, Husni said those efforts could shatter the habits of longtime readers without necessarily drawing new ones.

“Reading the magazine from A to Z should be a complete experience that I don’t need to go some other place to fulfill that experience,” he said.

And Husni warned that the changes to the print edition might come across to longtime readers as a lesser version of what the Post once was.

The magazine, whose circulation peaked at 6 million in 1960, now has 350,000 readers, most of whom are women older than 45. That’s low compared with the general interest, health and lifestyle magazines with which it competes, such as Prevention, with circulation of 3.3 million, and Guideposts, at 2 million.

Maureen Mercho, chief operating officer for the Post, said ad sales had dropped because of the recession, prompting the magazine to look for ways to broaden its base. “That probably pushed us” to do the redesign, she said.

Mercho said some people are surprised the Post still exists. She suspects that’s because the magazine is primarily available only to subscribers; fewer than 5,000 copies an issue are sold on newsstands. But she believes the relaunch will increase awareness of the magazine.