More is sponsoring a one-day Reinvention Convention in New York next Tuesday. It’s a consumer event featuring usual-suspect speakers on midlife issues like money, diet and careers. Wachovia and Harley-Davidson are sponsoring, and today’s New York Times says the conference is “a sign of the shifting attitudes toward older consumers.” More is a standout success story in convincing marketers to target 40+ women, but no one has cracked the code yet with a similar title for men. The only magazine that comes close is Rodale’s Best Life, which has seen its rate base jump to 450,000 and ad pages soar. But it targets a slightly younger target (35-54). And More publisher Brenda Saget Darling tells the Times certain categories “still have this obsession with youth,” especially fashion.

At least, that’s what the Financial Post thinks. The paper reports that growing numbers of marketers are tired of unsuccessful efforts targeting 18-to-35 year olds, and have realized Boomers have the money and preferable consumer habits. And here’s one you don’t see every day: Canada’s biggest traditional department store–The Bay–is pinning its hopes for survival on the 50+ crowd. According to one analyst:

[Boomers are]….”the only hope department stores have to survive in Canada. They will never get young people to open up their wallets so they have to get older customers to shop there,” he said. “This should have happened 10 years ago when everyone was blindly chasing youth.”

Can you think of a single mainstream department store in the U.S. that would admit this? I can’t.

Carol Orsborn of Fleishman-Hillard’s FH Boom Group is touring around Western Europe with a group from Bayard publishing group this week, and she’s posted some interesting observations about 50+ media in the countries she visits. Bayard has made a huge success of magazines targeting 50+ women in France, Germany, Sweden, Norway and a couple other countries. For some reason, 50+ magazines have flourished in these countries to a far greater extent than here in the U.S. Carol’s posts have been interesting, and today she describes her survey of a magazine rack in Sweden:

All I wanted to do was find the one publication with an older woman on the cover, announcing that I had located Bayard’s newest member of the family: Plus Sverige. In America, this would have been a simple task—picking out from the sea of glamorous, young faces the occasional laughline of an Oprah, Martha Stewart or one of the consecutive series of models and celebrities on the cover of More Magazine. But clearly, this wasn’t America. I counted 7 or 8 magazines with older folks prominently featured…and this from a much smaller collection of magazines. What’s more, these were not all magazines targeted to the “senior” market. In Stockholm, even TV Guide featured older folks on the cover.

The full post is here.

Media companies are scrambling to build up their online health information websites, and new Focalyst survey research spotlighting Boomer media preferences in this area show why.

The New York Times noted the trend a few days ago with a story on the Hearst Magazines acquisition of RealAge Inc., a consumer health website that lets users determine their “real age” using a variety of factors like exercise, diet and weight. Hearst also is working to build out more content across its existing stable of sites, such as Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan. The story also notes an initiative at U.S. News & World Report aimed at bulking up on health information. Health also has been a major area of focus, of course, for Boomer-specific online launches such as Eons and TeeBeeDee and magazines such as More.

The Focalyst survey data underscores just how big health care media will be for Boomers as they age. The survey compares preferences of Boomers and older “Matures” when it comes to seeking advice and information on health-related matters. I’ve edited down the findings to zero in on Boomer likelihood to turn to online media for health information. Print media, television and radio also are beneficiaries of the trend. You can find the full press release and findings here.

Dick Stroud writes about the first anniversary this week of RLTV, noting marketplace skepticism that senior housing mogul John Erickson’s tv network venture will succeed. Challenges include getting wider distribution, and convincing marketers to target 50+ audiences. My take: one of RLTV’s major challenges will be appealing to Boomers as they age into this demographic, since most refuse to think of themselves as senior or retired.

If you haven’t seen RLTV programming, check out their extensive video archive.

The New York Times has a good roundup today on the proliferation of venture-backed social networking sites. The article catalogues some of the more prominent launches, including Eons, TeeBeeDee. Most recent deal to be announced is a $16.5 million round for Multiply. Not all these sites are aimed at the 50+ demo, but the article’s key point is that venture capitalists are discovering the value of older consumers - defined as anyone past their teen years. Why? One VC, Paul Kedrosky, told the Times: “The older demographic has a bunch of interesting characteristics . . .not the least of which is that they hang around.”

The current glut of sites points to a shakeout. But 50+ social network sites have these trends in their favor:

• Boomers are demonstrating that they will join communities where they feel comfortable–witness strong growth in unique visits, page views and time-per-visit at Eons.
• They are launching into a strong growth demographic. In fact, the 50+ age bracket will be the only growth demo between now and 2015, according to Census Bureau data.

That sounds alot better than battling over a shrinking audience of fickle teenagers.