Some prefer their magazines electronic

Overall, an average of 16 percent of respondents said they preferred reading a qMag over an actual print magazine. That number varied based on the category of magazine in question, ranging from 8 to 37 percent.

Some prefer their
magazines electronic

Study: Reader market for cover-to-cover editions

By Jeff Bercovici

  The race to corner the market for electronic magazines is on, with no fewer than three companies striving to convince publishers that their software offers, or will offer, the most complete and satisfying reading experience.
    But, strangely, this race has been proceeding in the absence of any tangible proof that such a market, if it even exists, is large enough to be worth fighting over.
    Publishers may be keen to save money on paper and postage, but what's to say that readers will be as keen to abandon a technology--the print magazine--that they can toss in a briefcase, take on the bus, roll up, tear out, mark up and use to housebreak their pets?
    It turns out that some readers will be happy to do so.
    So says qMags.com, which today is releasing results from a study in which nearly 7,000 people were asked to read digital magazines and rate the experience.
    Conducted by Mediamark Research Inc., the study included cover-to-cover reproductions of 14 different titles from 10 publishers, including Hearst, Rodale, Dennis, McGraw-Hill, Gruner & Jahr and Ziff-Davis.
    The thrust of the findings: While many readers still incline towards ink and paper, a small but significant number would prefer to read magazines in the digital format created by qMags.
   These people represent the "early adopters" needed to bridge the gap between the current and next generation of readers, says Richard Seet, president of qMags parent Qiosk.com.
    To use qMags, readers must first download a file containing the entire magazine from the qMags web site. That file must be read using Adobe Acrobat.
    Readers can customize Acrobat with several navigation buttons, designed by qMags, which can be downloaded as plug-ins.
    For the study, emails were sent to 170,927 people who subscribe to one of the 14 participating titles, which represent categories ranging from women's magazines to technology and trade publications.
    Over 28,000 recipients responded to the message, and 6,768 were included in the final survey sample.
    Overall, an average of 16 percent of respondents said they preferred reading a qMag over an actual print magazine. That number varied based on the category of magazine in question, ranging from 8 to 37 percent.
    Readers of business, technology and trade magazines were the most receptive to the digital version, says Seet.
    Twenty-nine percent of respondents said they had no preference between the two versions.
    Another promising result came when respondents were asked whether they had found it difficult or unpleasant to download the magazine from the qMags site.
    Ninety-two percent said they had no difficulty, and 70 percent said they were extremely satisfied, satisfied or neutral about the download process. Of those who complained, most had attempted the download with a 56K modem rather than a cable or DSL connection.
    "What that says is that this is a broadband play," says Seet.
    Sixty-one percent of those in the survey said they would pay to buy subscriptions, single copies or individual articles through qMags.
    But perhaps most encouragingly for publishers, 29 percent of respondents said they would buy more magazines than they do now if electronic magazines were widely available.
    Of the 39 percent of survey-takers who said they would not pay for qMags, around three-quarters said it was because they didn't like reading off a computer screen.
    Earlier this summer, Qiosk.com announced deals with Hearst, Crain's and CMP to sell qMags versions of some of their titles.
    Popular Mechanics will be the first consumer magazine to debut in qMag form when the November issue goes on sale in October. A demo version of Popular Mechanics is available for download now on qMags.com
    Qiosk's competitors include Newsstand Inc. and Zinio. Newsstand, which created its own reader for viewing the publications, sells the Harvard Business Review and has deals with The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.
    Zinio has scheduled a rollout date of its product for second quarter 2002, says a representative for the company. Zinio is now conducting market research in conjunction with Time Inc.

-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.

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