Hi OldPlayer,
Sometimes you can't see much change in their progress bar, but when they earn money it shows that they did progress. I've had the magazines bring a couple of my peeps up a whole level before. As a fact it happened just this evening. My little lady had a baby right after the honeymoon, so I used an Office Magazine on her, and it put her up a complete level. That was so neat! They're always worth the purchase I think. And you can use more than one on your little peep. I usually try to get mine to working, and then use it on them. I'm not sure but think that may make a difference in how the magazines are.