Nearly 5 million Canadians now read a digital magazine – up from 1.85 million in 2013 – according to Magazines Canada’s 2015 Digital Magazine Media Fact Book. A quarter of magazine readers are consuming content exclusively via digital platforms.
These digital readers tend to be younger, more urban, highly educated and more likely to be employed in a professional/managerial capacity. Digital readers are divided when it comes to their preferred format however, with 36.7% saying they prefer a web edition, 32% opting for a tablet edition and the remainder opting for print.
Magazines are increasingly embracing digital initiatives to accommodate digitally savvy audiences, with 79% indicating they have a presence on Facebook, 77% saying they have a website and 67% saying they are engaging in e-newsletters. Other popular initiatives among magazine publishers include blogs (61%), LinkedIn activity (52%) and online video (46%).
Tablets have the greatest symbiosis with magazines because they come closest to replicating the print readership experience on a digital platform. Nearly half of the Canadian population (49.5%) is expected to own a tablet device by 2019.
Tablet readership closely mimics that of print products, with 96% of people using it on the couch and 73% using it in bed. But while ads are noticed by 52% of print and tablet readers alike, digital ads are more likely to inspire a user to take action (71% versus 59%).
The report also indicated consumer adoption of full-size tablets declined 20% year-over-year, while “phablets” such as the iPhone 6+ and the Samsung Galaxy Note grew 148% in the same period. News and magazine consumption on phablets increased 144% between January 2014 and January 2015.
Research also suggested users are more enamoured with the advertising experience on magazine websites (which scored a 3.3 out of five) than they are on newspaper websites (3.0), social network sites (2.9) and TV websites (2.8%).
More than half of magazine website users (54%) indicates they pay attention to the ads they encounter, ranking well ahead of newspaper websites (15%), social network sites (11%) and TV websites (5%).
The vast majority of people who visited a magazine website (83%) went to an advertiser’s website after an ad caught their attention, while 53% recommended a brand and 51% purchased the product.
Magazine website content also scored highest when it came to the value of the content offered, just nosing out newspaper websites 4.0 to 3.9 on a five-point scale. The scores are based on criteria including credibility, quality and interest in the articles.
More than three quarters of people (77%) said their primary motivation for consuming magazine web content is updated information, while 47% cited rich media and 45% cited information quality.
Three quarters of people, meanwhile, agreed with the statement they find it “very natural” to read a magazine or newspaper and to subsequently consult its internet site or mobile app, while 73% agreed they can go deeper into a topic or subject and 72% agreed with the statement that print and digital products complement each other.
Magazine readers choose to share content privately 70% of the time – primarily through email (44%) – while public sharing is split between Facebook and Pinterest at 35% apiece.
