March 1, 2010

Contact: Mark Morgan 212-779-7700

CSJ/Abt SRBI Study: Magazines Face Web Challenges.

A new survey of magazine editors and publishers finds print magazines struggling to reverse readership and revenue declines by increased reliance on the web.

The survey's objective was to get a clear picture of the how print magazines with websites are managing both the editorial and business sides of print vs. web. The survey also documents the challenges editors and publishers are facing in attempting to achieve profitability and viability.

The study, published in (CITATION AND DATE) interviewed 665 magazine editors and publishers who offer both print and web offerings. The survey, conducted online in Summer/Fall 2009, was commissioned by the Columbia University School of Journalism and funded by the MacArthur Foundation.

The principal investigator was Victor S. Navasky, Publisher Emeritus of The Nation and Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Mark Morgan, a Senior Vice President and head of Abt SRBI's Media Practice Group, directed the survey.

As more readers turn to the web for news and information, this shift is eroding the audience share of more traditional print media. In response, most magazines have developed and expanded their presence on the web. Publishing in the web environment is different than print in many ways and magazine publishers are adapting to this new media environment.

Online profits scarce

The survey finds that only about a third of magazine websites make a profit (Q.7), according to editors and publishers.

• 31% say the website does not make a profit;
• 17% do not calculate the website's profitability separately, and
• 20% do not know.

Advertising is by far the largest revenue source for magazine websites (Q.9) Magazine websites are more likely to be profitable when budget decisions are made by the publisher or an independent web editor (Q.10)

Most web content free

Editors and publishers were asked to report on the amount of the magazines' print edition content available on-line and the payment structure to access that information.

• 52% of the survey respondents indicate that all significant content from the print edition is available freely online;
• 31% say that some print edition content is free online;
• 10% say some is free online and some is online behind a paywall; and
• 4% have all or almost all print content behind a paywall.

Offering free content does not necessarily hurt profitability:

• 49% of the web sites that don't make a profit offer all significant content from the print edition free online; but
• 65% of the sites that do make a profit offer their content for free.

Advertising major revenue source for magazine websites

The largest revenue source for more than two-thirds (68%) of respondents is advertising on the website. Just over 1 in 10 (11%) say that print subscription sales are the largest revenue source for the website.

Among magazines that are making a profit from their site, 83% say that advertising is their largest revenue source.

There are a variety of ad pricing modes being used online (Q.19) The most prevalent price structures used among magazine websites are:

• 44% use cost per impression pricing
• 32% use sponsored sections (micro-sites)
• 21% use cost per click pricing
• 19% use cost per sale pricing
• 17% use affiliate programs

Decision-making structures for websites vary widely (Q.10)

Magazines use a number of different methods for web content and budget decisions. The only "practices" with a majority following are that the Editor-in-Chief sets the editorial tone (64%) and content decisions (51%). Responsibility for "look and feel" shows no real trend, with independent web editors most often making those choices (33%).

Publishers are the most likely title to oversee the web budget, but in less than half (44%) of the magazines.

(Table shows percentages based on all 655 respondents answering each item)

Web sites budgets controlled by publishers most profitable

Signs of tension between editors and publishers may be evident in the relationship between budget decision-making and profitability. Magazine websites that do not make a profit (40%) are nearly two times as likely to have the web budget controlled by the Editor-in-Chief than those sites that do make a profit (21%). In magazines with profitable websites, publishers or independent web editors control 67% of the web budgets vs. 43% in unprofitable sites.

Websites making a profit are also slightly more likely to have web content determined by an independent web editor (25% vs. 17%) instead of the Editor-in-Chief.

Little web experience

On average, about two-thirds of staff are expected to work on both the print and web editions of magazines (Q.11)

• 27% work only on the print edition; and
• 6% work only on the web site

Most employees are hired without web experience and learn on the job (Q.11a) On average:

• 59% learn to work on the web while on the job; and
• 29% are hired with web experience

Measuring online success: spotty

About half of the magazines surveyed are using metrics to guide content decisions, but only 8% closely monitor and rely on them (Q.26)

Although monthly web traffic statistics are often used as metrics to measure the overall success of a website, only about half of the these editors and publishers (47%) use per piece traffic measurements to make editorial decisions.

• 8% closely follow traffic stats for each piece of content and they are one of the main factors in editorial decision-making
• 39% have a good understanding of which content is doing best and use that info when making editorial decisions

Another 43% do not really use traffic statistics:

• 21% notice when individual content is doing well, but don't usually act on that info;
• 22% don't systematically check traffic stats for individual pieces of content

Google analytics most helpful

Google Analytics is far and away the online metric named most often named as most helpful to magazine websites (Q.25)

• 61% say Google Analytics is most helpful;
• 7% mention Ominiture (Sitecatalyst); and
• 4% say Comscore Media Metrics;
• no other names exceed 3%

Most use just one editorial group for print and online

• Almost two-thirds, 63%, say there is a single editorial group that commissions both print and online-only content;
• 20% have two distinct editorial groups, one print, one online,
• 6% do not regularly interact
• 14% meet to discuss content ideas and assign them to either group
• 16% have no online-only content; content comes exclusively from the print edition.

Most online content "recycled" from the print edition (Q.22)

More than one in five (22%) say that quality issues is a reason for relegating content to the web at least sometimes.

Less online copy-editing and fact-checking

Copy editing (excluding blogs) is less rigorous online for more than half (59%) of magazines surveyed (Q.13)

• 11% do no copy editing for online-only content;
• 48% copy-edit online-only content, but less rigorously than print content; and
• 41% use the same copy-editing process for online-only and print content

In total, 89% of magazines surveyed do at least some copy-editing of their online only content.

Fact checking (excluding blogs) is less rigorous online than in print for 35% of respondents (Q.14)

• 8% do not fact-check print or online content;
• 8% do not fact-check online-only content;
• 27% say online-only content is fact-checked, but less rigorously than print content; and
• 57% use the same fact-checking process for online-only and print content.

In total, 84% of magazines surveyed do at least some fact-checking of their online only content and 92% fact-check their print content.

Many magazines correct without acknowledging the mistakes (Q.15)

• 87% correct minor errors, such as typos or misspellings, with no indication to readers;
• 45% correct factual errors with no indication to readers;
• 37% correct factual errors and append an editor's note detailing the nature of the error to the content where the mistake appeared;
• 6% leave major factual errors in as they originally appeared in the content, but add an editor's note at the point of the error; and
• 1% note all errors in a special section of the website.

Most use social media sites (Q.30)

The use of social networking sites as a business tool has increased as they have gained in popularity in recent years.

• Close to half 47% of respondents have an "active presence" in social media sites;
• 28% occasionally seed links to new content on social network sites; and
• 23% have no active plan for using social media sites.

Among magazines that do use social media sites, Facebook and Twitter are clearly the two most effective sites for driving traffic.

Four out of five magazine websites (80%) do at least some email marketing (Q.32)

Another publicity tool utilized by magazines is email marketing. Email messages that include a newsletter with links to website content were the most common (66%) and also deemed the most effective (62%) form of email marketing.

Most websites have blogs, reader comments

64% of magazines surveyed have blogs on their website (Q.29). For the magazines that have blogs most (87%) are maintained by staff members and 39% use freelancers or contractors for blogs.

Nearly three quarters (73%) of the sample publications permit comments to be posted to the website (Q.28). Among the magazines that allow commenting, 84% do at least some form of moderating of the comments.

Content management systems vary; custom-designs leading the way (Q.33)

More than half (54%) have a custom designed system in place:

• 37% use a custom-designed system, shared by multiple sites in their publishing family; and
• 17% have a custom-designed system used by their magazine alone
• 16% use an off-the-shelf commercial system; and
• 11% use an open-source system

Few sites optimized for smart phones

Display technology is not keeping up with mobile technology for many magazines that are online as

• Less than 1 in 5 are optimized for smartphones and only 4% are formatted for ebook readers (Q.34)
• 54% offer a digital version of each print issue that replicates the layout of a physical copy
• 47% of sites allow readers to subscribe to content on their own, using RSS feeds, podcasts on iTunes, etc.
• 18% have a mobile edition of the site that is optimized for portable devices like smartphones; and
• 4% have content formatted for ebook readers like the Kindle