Figures That Matter

-In 1967, the quarterly circulation of American Way was 600,000 (200,000 per month), with four million readers (1.3 million per month). Today, we're distributed twice a month, and the circulation is nearly four times that at 350,900 (701,800 per month), with three times the number of readers - 1,627,000 (3,254,000 per month).

-Although it started out as a quarterly publication, The American Way went bimonthly in 1968, and then monthly in September 1969.

-The median household income of the American Way reader was $31,400 in fall 1979. Today, it's $100,026.

-In 1969, a subscription for the quarterly The American Way was $3 per year, and a single issue cost a mere 50 cents. By 1976, as a monthly publication, it cost $10 yearly or $1 by the issue. Today, for 24 issues a year, it costs $72, and a single copy is $5.

-By 1975, the readership of the magazine had reached 2.7 million each month. However, American Way had yet to be profitable.

-During the late '70s, advertisers began to take notice of the airline magazine industry as a whole, and ad revenue for American Way began exceeding its expenses - we were finally turning a profit. AW continues to bring in the green (and operate in the black) to this day.

-By the mid-1980s, AW's large (and heavy) issues made the cost of fuel burn extremely expensive, thus it was decided in January 1985 for American Way to go from a monthly publication schedule to fortnightly (every two weeks) - translating to smaller, lighter issues every other Tuesday, or 26 times a year.

-On October 1, 1986, American Way's publication schedule changed to twice a month (on the first and the 15th), or 24 times a year. We currently remain the only airline magazine to be published this often.