Diseases and ailments of old age (this month: cold feet and hands) are in Plus Magazine never far away, but in the magazine for over-50s the glass is half full and there is hardly any grumbling. It can only get better, is the cheerful and hopeful exclamation on the front page.
Plus has been targeting ‘confident’ over-50s since the last century and is doing so successfully. It bills itself as the largest monthly magazine in the Netherlands. Precise, recent circulation figures cannot be found, but in 2019 more than 230 thousand copies were sold every month. On Facebook, Plus followed by more than 100 thousand people, that’s saying something.
Where the Jan Slagter hit Max Magazine stays on the surface, dives Plus more in-depth, using the pillars of care, pension, money and law, leisure and – inevitably – nostalgia. The first sentence of a letter from a 51-year-old woman: ‘I also have good memories of the kitchen from the past.’ Her email is about string beans.
Corona is hardly mentioned, the over-55s go on and try to make the best of it. This month they receive a push in the right direction from Hedy d’Ancona (84), Twan Huys (57), cardiologist Harriette Verwey (70), Tineke Schouten (67) and Pieter van Vollenhoven (82). They gave ‘inspiring interviews’.
In almost all cases the message is that age is just a number and that you should not give up. Comedian Schouten about the misery of the closure of the theaters and the cancellation of her performances: ‘As my mother always said: keep going! Shoulders underneath.’
In Plus count the years. It is not for nothing that the age of all columnists is mentioned. The youngest is Bram Bakker (58), the oldest Koos Postema (89). For those who will soon be in Ibiza, wine connoisseur and promoter Harold Hamersma (65) gives in his piece the tip to drop by restaurant Pegador in Santa Eulària des Rio: ‘Delicious wine list.’
No, then Hedy d’Ancona, in an interview with Tom Kellerhuis. We know him as editor-in-chief of HP/The Time. D’Ancona also has a tip. Body and brain need to keep moving, she says. “If you lie back in your recliner with your legs in the air, looking at the ‘comfort box’ as I call the TV in my book, it goes quickly.”
Also completely Plus is the old-fashioned, almost nostalgic advertisement section ‘Advertising’. A 74-year-old widow sees a trustworthy man, ‘not smoking or bearded’.