Research: We're at the tipping point of mobile consumption – but readers want print too

A survey of 200 publishers commissioned by the Specialist Media Show shows the adoption of mobile apps is at a tipping point, but conflicting research shows readers still want print as well.So what’s the solution? Publishers are advised to hedge their bets.

Mobile magazines no panacea – beware of follow my leader

Printed magazine circulations are still falling, so publishers are looking to digital, which these days means embracing mobile platforms. However, fortunes are mixed.

Dennis Publishing Loading... companies dennis-publishing has attracted promising iPad downloads for its digital-only brands such as iGizmo and Money. Elsewhere, tablet editions have fared less well, so mobile technology is no catch-all solution to the industry’s market woes. Mobile magazines may suit some genres and their distinctive reader communities better than others. Playing “follow the leader” where one publisher mimics another based on individual experience with a particular technology platform could prove to
be a problematic strategy.

Magazine publishers at the tipping point

The Specialist Media Show’s research revealed:

– 19 percent of magazine professionals polled already produce mobile content. A critical mass of innovation adoption that could trigger dramatic mass adoption usually occurs at 10 percent to 25 percent market penetration.

– 15 percent of respondents are planning to launch a mobile app in the next year, 11 percent within the “next few years” – further evidence that a tipping point is imminent.

– Many (46 percent) remained undecided on the issue but only a few (6 percent) dismissed the idea outright.

Is there a market and how do publishers make money?

Among respondents with mobile apps in mind (59 in all), the iPhone and iPad (81 percent in each case) received the greatest endorsement, followed by phones based on Google Loading... companies google ’s Android operating system (63 percent) and Android tablets (49 percent).

Clearly much of the sector regards mobile apps as where their future lies. But two big questions remain: 1. Is there a market out there for a mobile version of your magazine? 2. How can this product be monetised?

So now to consumers themselves. The last Digital Entertainment Survey by Wiggin/Entertainment Media Research interviewed more than 1,500 respondents aged 15 and over. 79 percent claimed they currently or mainly read magazines in paper formats.

Despite the expectations that going digital helps to capture the youth or young adult markets, the evidence here
advises cautious optimism. Males aged 15 to 19 (16 percent) or 20 to 24 years old (14 percent) were significantly ahead of the population average (8 percent) who mainly or only read magazines online, but they were alone in this respect.

Only a minority (15 percent) were willing to pay for magazines that could be read on a mobile device, and that was when the cost was just 20p. Mobile electronic magazines received slightly more widespread support than mobile electronic newspapers (13 percent).

Consumers want print and digital; publishers should hedge their bets

The research suggests that readers, regardless of age or gender, want the choice between hard copy and digital formats. 43 percent in the Digital Entertainment Survey only wanted to read paper magazines and a small minority (6 percent) wanted only digital magazines. The most popular option (for 46 percent) was paper magazines with access to content online, including via a mobile device.

The best advice for the sector at present than is to hedge your bets and to embrace digital, but not totally at the expense of paper. Each audience, however is likely to be at a different stage in terms of device adoption and degree of comfort with applications. So publishers need to know their own readers well before jumping too fast onto mobile.

Barrie Gunter is Professor of Mass Communication and Head of the Department of Media and Communication, University of Leicester Loading... companies university-of-leicester .

The survey of 200 publishers was commissioned by the Specialist Media Show in partnership with PPA, InPublishing, University of Leicester and Wessenden Marketing. The full results will be presented at the Specialist Media Show Conference

Full insights from this research, including how activity splits across consumer and B2B markets, and by larger and smaller publishers, will be presented by Jim Bilton of Wessenden Marketing and Professor Barrie Gunter of University of Leicester at the Specialist Media Show Conference on 25 May 2011 at Exec Peterborough. Delegates will get a full report.

– See the full Conference programme here
– Book Conference tickets online
– Register for free to attend the Specialist Media Show Exhibition on 25 May 2011.