Tablet magazine readers agree print versions are ‘more satisfying’ | 21 Feb 2012

Magazine publishers should be interested in a recent survey of tablet owners about their magazine-reading habits. The survey was carried out by the global consumer research company GfK MRI in the USA. It asked people who had read a magazine on their tablet within the previous 30 days how they felt about the experience, and how they felt about digital magazines in general.

Some of the results were pretty much what you would expect from a survey of people who had been selected precisely because they had recently read a digital magazine on their tablet; 67% stated that they would rather read a digital magazine than its print equivalent. However, it appears that what they are valuing is the immediacy and convenience of being able to download a magazine straight to their device, because 65% of the survey went on to say that they felt it was ‘more satisfying’ to read a printed magazine than a digital one.

For digital publishers, there were a number of other useful findings, although some were warnings rather than endorsements.

On the positive side, 70% said they wanted to be able to buy items by clicking directly on interactive adverts carried in the magazine. This active engagement with digital advertising will be pleasing to publishers trying to persuade advertisers that digital publishing can deliver the goods for them. More tricksy is the liking for personalised adverts, expressed by 70% of respondents. Genuine personalisation to the level of an individual reader is a really tough thing to deliver to a native app, less tough for a magazine that calls in its adverts on the fly using a web app. One possibility for native apps could be very careful segmentation of a digital magazine’s readership, with different segments being offered different downloads of the magazine carrying a tailored advertising inventory. Less exhausting would be simply ensuring that advertisers are carefully picked to match well with the magazine’s readership.

The survey also asked how readers found out about magazines available on their tablet: top referrer, not surprisingly, was the App Store, used by 65% of respondents; closely followed at 52% by traditional media (TV, radio, newspapers, print magazines, websites); 31% used a digital newsstand; 27% heard about the magazine through family and friends; 23% read a review of the app; and 21% followed a link from another app.

Of concern to digital publishers will be a number of findings that suggest readers find their efforts to make digital magazines all-singing and all-dancing a bit tiresome. More than six out of 10 (65%) said they preferred their digital magazines to be simple reproductions of the printed version rather than having lots of extra interactive features. It is possible that the respondents are reacting to the clumsy efforts by many digital publishers to spray on superficial and fairly meaningless rich-media features; 46% complained that video content within magazines was ‘just a gimmick’. Perhaps the lesson here is to add rich-media features only where they genuinely add value to the editorial content; don’t add interactivity just because you can. (And don’t forget that every extra rich-media add-on costs you more in terms of design and programming time!) More basic gripes were excessively-long download times (48%), a confusing variety of formats and navigation styles (72%), and the difficulty of search for magazines on tablets (43%).

So the main takeaways are to keep things simple and true to the editorial content of the magazine, and to think about the basics: don’t make the download too large; describe your magazine well in the App Store, taking care to classify it sensibly and using keywords that will resonate with your target readership; and get your best sales people in front of the advertisers to spread the good news about readers’ enthusiasm for digital ads.

Mark Rosselli is chairman of CPL