Sample Size in Multi-Year Content Analyses of Monthly Consumer Magazines

This study examined efficient sampling for content analyzing monthly consumer magazines during a five-year period. As with other forms of media content, sampling of monthly consumer magazines is more efficient using a stratified sample than a simple random sample. When sampling from a five-year period, a constructed year of twelve issues (one issue randomly selected from among the issues in each month) is more efficient and accurate than twenty randomly selected issues - the smallest simple random sample meeting standards of efficiency on all content measures.