Answer, educate, inspire: how readers searches work

With magazine engagement with their audiences increasingly dependent on canny use of the web, it may pay off to give some attention to research about how readers search for what they want. A proprietary study conducted by About.com (part of the New York Times) in collaboration with Latitude, looked at how users exhibit three distinct search behaviours.Though the research is pitched to

Is the wired generation actually a re-wired generation?

A study commissioned by Time Inc.and previewed Monday at a New York conference appears to show that millenials, the people who grew up after the explosion of digital media, have become wired differently because of this changed environment. According to a story in MediaDailyNews, young people had biometric sensors attached that tracked their heart rates, breathing, sweating and even how and what

More time at the office the price of premium salaries for U.S. editorial managers

One of the most unsurprising things in the just-released online 2011 editorial salary survey from Folio: shows that  those magazine managers at U.S. consumer and b2b titles who work more than 50 hours a week get paid the most. For the most senior (editorial directors/editors-in-chief)...Those who clocked out with an average work week of 40 hours earned $69,900; editors spending 41-49 hours per

American digital magazines ranked in terms of trust, interest and believability

Research from Affinity LLC indicates the leaders among American digital magazine brands in terms of various attributes among 170 titles considered by readers. This, according to a story in Folio:
Most Trusted: WebMD the Magazine
Most Entertaining: Maxim
Most Useful: Cooking Light
Most Innovative: Dwell
Most Believable: Guideposts
Most Topical: The Atlantic
Most Authoritative: The Economist

Steady as it goes for the PMB readership of Canadian medical publications

Readership of the leading Canadian medical publications has remained steady, according to the 2011 Medical Media Study (MMS) released by the Print Measurement Bureau (PMB). The study was last done in 2009 and since then has been augmented with questions about online readership for 21 medical titles, including The Medical Post (Rogers), Canadian Medical Association Journal and Canadian Family

Magazine finds women write most stories, but men get quoted more

I wonder how many magazines take the time or care to tally up how they are doing in reflecting the breadth and depth of their audience? This Magazine's Hilary Beaumont took on the periodic task of totting up the bylines and locations of stories and the gender of the authors and the sources they referred to. Not surprisingly, this lefty magazine found it was a bit Toronto-centric but, as befits a

Flat Q2 ad page sales figures reported for U.S. magazines

Data from the U.S. shows that first half advertising page sales for magazines are up 1.3% from 2010, although Q2 sales were basically flat at 0.3% increase over the same quarter a year earlier. Q1 sales had been up 2.5%. The data is from the Publishers Information Bureau and was reported by MediaDaily News. 2011 has seen a continuation of a previous trend, which saw both losses and gains

U.S. online ad share in 2011 is expected to be 15% of total

Interesting graphic from Business Insider showing the recent and estimated U.S. revenues achieved by various media. It shows that magazines are  holding their own, although online advertising is the fastest growing sector in the ad business. The graph, based on data from Barclays Capital shows that online ad spending is expected to be $30 billion in the U.S. this year or a little more than 15% of

The importance of editorial "earned media"

A weird term that has cropped up recently is "earned media", by which advertisers mean editorial content and public relations. A joint research study from Synaptic Digital and Kantar Video, reported by MediaPost, seems to say that brand messages from advertisers resonate best with consumers when packaged in newsworthy, informative formats rather than a straight-ahead paid ads (note that the

Digital is the hot ticket globally, says PwC outlook, but non-digital (like print) is two-thirds of revenue

Growth in advertising revenue across all media in the next 5 years will predominantly be digital, according to the annual global entertainment and media outlook prepared by the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Overall entertainment and media revenues worldwide are forecast by the firm to increase by about 5.7% annually. Advertising, which slumped 11% in 2009 as the result of the recession,

Speculation starts about Canadianized editions of Hearst magazines

It was probably inevitable that the recent takeover by Hearst Corporation of 49% of the joint venture with Transcontinental Media producing Elle Canada and Elle Quebec would provoke speculation about similar arrangements with other big Hearst titles. And so it has with an item on the Huffington Post by Marc Weisblott though it contains little that would indicate we'll see Canadian editions of

Canadian Writers Group and Canadian Media Guild poll freelancers in advance of Magawards

The website Story Board, a joint initiative by the union, the Canadian Media Guild and the agency, the Canadian Writers Group, is conducting an online survey of Canadian magazine freelancers, results of which will be released the morning of the National Magazine Awards. Gearing up for the NMAs this month, we thought a survey on the state of magazine freelancing in Canada was in order. It’s also

Canada Council latest benchmark study for cultural magazines has been released

[This post has been updated] All Canada Council for the Arts-funded magazines will shortly receive a copy of the latest benchmarking study, allowing the publications to compare their performance with similar magazines of their type. Since Staticstics Canada several years ago did away with its census of magazines, good comparable data has been hard to find. This latest is based on 2009 data and is

Starch Research to launch expanded ROI research tool in Canada

Starch Research Services Ltd. of Canada and its parent firm GfK MRI are launching a syndicated magazine ad return on investment (ROI) measurement service this month in Canada called StarchMetrix, according to a story in MediaDailyNews.It will measure advertising readership and effectiveness -- much as traditional STARCH reports do -- but will go beyond ad noting, branding and reading to measure

Tablets change the way people read and perceive magazines, research shows

According to research conducted by Bonnier Publishing anad CP+B Group, an advertising agency, it is no longer just rival publications that will lure away a magazine's readers but publishers must now consider that they are competing for attention with apps and tablet features. This, from a story on Audience Development. It also found that on a tablet, readers sometimes can't distinguish between

PMB spring data shows that younger magazine readership still strong

“It’s not as if there is a diminishing level of interest in the printed copy of magazines. The media world is changing rapidly, but the reality is people are still reading printed magazines.”-- Steve Ferley, president of the Print Measurement Bureau, >commenting in Marketing magazine on the just-released spring results of the twice-a-year research report.  The Marketing  story says that,

Readers' quality perceptions depend on how much they trust the source

Magazine publishers bang on about branding a lot and clearly believe that building a consistent, trusted image for their publications is a strong contributor to success. Now, according to a column today in the Globe and Mail by Chrystia Freeland, there may be proof that successful publishing is indeed in the business of providing readers with an editorial environment they trust.She reports that

J-Source.ca wants to know what you think of it

J-source, the website project of the Canadian Journalism Foundation, is asking journalists, educators and others to give it some feedback about the site by filling out a brief online survey.

Commons committee recommends major investments in digital media

Almost a year after starting a study of digital and emerging media, the standing Commons committee on digital media has released a report recommending that the government increase funding to the Canada Media Fund, strengthen digital media components of its arts and culture programs and take measures to protect creative works from copyright privacy. The 44-page report is called  Emerging and

Many designers freelance on the side: survey

There's a good deal of moonlighting going on in the art and design sector, according to a new study of national salaries and billing practices in graphic design. On average, 48% of designers who are not full time freelancers work in addition to their regular job, averaging 7 hours of outside work a week. The median part-time income for freelance work in 2009 was $9,200.The 2010/2011 salary survey