Magazine Subscriber Would Pay For Electronic Editions.

A majority of magazine subscribers surveyed said they both enjoyed reading (54%) and would pay for (61%) a qMags electronic edition of their magazine, revealed a Beta test of 6,768 subscribers to 14 magazines from 10 publishers* conducted by Mediamark Research, Inc. (MRI). The study also indicated that, contrary to traditional wisdom, downloading was not a problem.

qMags.com, a subsidiary of Qiosk.com, Inc., provides qMags editions: exact, cover-to-cover electronic replicas of printed magazines including all illustrations and advertising, plus embedded audio and video enhancements.

Following are data from the MRI study:

* Of the 61% of respondents who would consider buying qMags editions of magazines in the future, 69% are interested in subscribing, 66% in single-copy purchase, and 46% in single-article purchase.

* Respondents were positive about the qMags experience: 54% enjoyed reading the qMags edition, 29% had no preference. And 16% even preferred it to the paper version (up to 37% of different magazine subscribers preferred the qMags edition). Half wanted to learn more about electronic versions and 49% were interested in getting electronic versions of the publications read at work/for research, while 46% were interested in this for pleasure/entertainment.

* Seventy percent of respondents were extremely satisfied, satisfied, or neutral about downloading the qMags edition. And 92% experienced no downloading difficulty.

* Twenty-nine percent of respondents anticipate that the wide availability of electronic magazines would increase their overall readership.

* Of the 39% of respondents who would not consider buying electronic magazines in the future, the majority (74%) prefer the paper version and 76% did not like sitting in front of a computer to read.

* Respondents expressed enthusiasm for the many advantages of the qMags delivery: 80% supported “saving paper” … 75% said hyperlinks added value while 56% thought they brought the publication “to life” … 73% believed it was easier to search for particular items/subjects … 65% welcomed the idea of getting the publication anywhere at any time, while 71% appreciated the concept of an electronic archive … 65% liked the fact that you don’t have to wait for postal delivery, and more than half reported they liked the ability to change the print size.

* Ninety-two percent of respondents were actively involved with the electronic format either through hyperlinks, playing audio/video clips, searching for specific information, or first modifying the page size.

* The 14-title summary reflects high involvement with traditional print on the part of respondent subscribers: 75% reported they typically read 4 out of 4 published issues and 60% spent an hour or longer reading the print issues.

* Respondents spent an average of 31 minutes with their qMags edition.

* Ninety-three percent of respondents made an Internet purchase in the last year.

* The qMags version of magazines attracted a young, highly educated, well-employed and affluent demographic. Each of these demographics was more attractive that those of a Web-enabled or general population.

Methodology

An e-mail invitation to download a free qMags edition for evaluation was delivered to 170,927 addresses provided by the 10 publishers. These generated 28,027 responses or 16%. A second e-mail invited respondents to participate in a survey to evaluate the qMags edition: 8,653, or 31% of those initiating the download came to the survey. 6,768 individuals comprised the final in-lab sample, a cooperation rate of 78%.

*The 10 publishers were CMP, Crain, Dennis, Gruner & Jahr, Hachette-Filipacchi, Hearst, McGraw-Hill, Meredith, Rodale, and Ziff-Davis.

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