Bivings, Newspaper Study, Research, Technology, Web 2.0, Website review

Nov 29, 2006

TBG has recently completed a research study called "Analyzing the Presence of Magazines on the Internet". In the wake of success surrounding our previous newspaper study, "The Use of the Internet by America's Newspapers ", we decided to conduct similar research on the magazine industry. Our study reviews the websites of the top 50 most circulated magazines in the United States and evaluates them based on the presence or absence of various Web 2.0 features. After finishing the research, it became clear that magazines are not making use of Web 2.0. Despite their failure in terms of Web features, it should be recognized that magazines have taken on a more effective general strategy than newspapers when it comes to the Internet. Instead of replicating printed content online, as newspapers do, magazines have made efforts to publish unique, Web specific, and easily digestible materials on their websites. In this way, magazines are using the Internet as a supplement to, rather than a replacement of, their printed publications. Magazine websites limit their article content and focus on pushing customers to purchasing printed subscriptions. Here are some key findings from our research:

The most common online feature offered by magazines is RSS feeds (48 per cent). All of the RSS feeds offered by magazine websites are partial feeds. In addition, none of the magazines are including advertisements in their RSS feeds, while just 28 per cent of magazines divide their RSS feeds into different sections.

Message boards/forums are offered by 46 per cent of magazine websites. This seemingly old-fashioned form of communication is extremely popular on magazine websites, particularly on the sites of women’s magazines.

38 per cent of the magazines require registration to view all of the site’s content. While this feature is only present on 23 per cent of the nation’s top 100 newspaper sites, it seems that magazines are still heavily reliant on website registration. It must be noted, however, that newspaper and magazine online registration is very different. The large majority of the magazines we investigated allow users to view article content free of registration. However, to participate in forums, registration is required. This seems to serve as a mechanism for monitoring content that people post on message boards rather than to collect demographic information, as is the case with newspapers. Thus, this 38 per cent figure largely represents magazines that require forum registration, not registration for the purpose of reading articles.

40 per cent of the magazines offer at least one reporter blog. Readers can comment on 17 of the 19 magazine blogs, while eight reporter blogs offer blogrolls, or external links to other blogs.

Video is an offering on 34 per cent of websites.

Just 14 per cent of websites use podcasts and bookmarking; eight percent allow comments on articles; and six per cent use tags.

You can read the report in its entirety here and view our data sheets here Please take a look and let us know what you think!

http://www.buzzmachine.com/index.php/2006/11/29/magnet/ BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Mag.net

[...] The Bivings Report surveys magazine sites. After finishing the research, it became clear that magazines are not making use of Web 2.0. [...]
http://elenacoman.wordpress.com/2006/11/29/revista-tarzie-a-blogurilor/ revista tarzie a blogurilor « elenalog

[...] – The Bivings Report on magazines and internet [...]
http://www.rexblog.com/2006/11/29/16287/ rexblog.com: Rex Hammock’s weblog » Blog Archive » New Hammock Publishing logo

[...] Hammock Publishing needed a new logo. Actually, we’ve never had a logo, merely a type treatment — and an unfortunate swirl phase we went through. I especially liked the one we chose as it includes some fun with type: The two trunks of the “H” are comprised of a forward slash “/” a backward slash “” and the bar of the “H” is a closing parenthesis turned upwards: “)”. We’ll be rolling it out slowly — up soon: a new website that “makes use of Web 2.0” — but I thought I’d preview it here. [...]
http://www.rexblog.com/2006/11/30/16288/ rexblog.com: Rex Hammock’s weblog » Blog Archive » links for 2006-11-30

[...] Web 2.0iness of Magazine Websites | The Bivings Report Quote: “(After finishing the research of the top 50 magazine websites) it was clear that magazines aren’t making use of Web 2.0″ (Let me get this straight: Web 2.0 is something you can make use of.) (tags: magazines) [...]
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2006/11/what_should_mag.html Blogspotting

What should magazines do online?…

About a month ago I wrote about my growing stack of unread magazines. I’ve been whittling them down, and I’ve been enjoying it–much more than the time I spend on magazine sites online. I see them as two different experiences…….
http://www.startechglobal.com David Scott Lewis

You left out an EXTREMELY important question: What percentage of magazines offer some sort of e-newsletter option, either to specialized e-newsletters culled from printed content or a digital copy of the printed magazine?

Yes, WE all love RSS, but I’ve found that the higher one goes on the corporate food chain, the less likely they are to use RSS — and prefer receiving e-newsletters. Maybe you didn’t ask this question because it’s not Web 2.0, but it’s still an extremely important question relative to which digital alternatives are really desired by printed magazine readers.

Something like Second Life gets a lot of attention in our universe, but in the real world, it may get attention (the cover of Business Week, for instance), but little sustainable traction across broad industries. Yeah, it’s cool for Sun and some consumer packaged goods companies, but it’s hardly ready as a mainstream marketing tool. Way too early.

Anyway, e-newsletters rule in the real world, even if they’re not Web 2.0. That’s a fact that can’t be denied.
http://www.startechglobal.com David Scott Lewis

You left out an EXTREMELY important question: What percentage of magazines offer some sort of e-newsletter option, either to specialized e-newsletters culled from printed content or a digital copy of the printed magazine?

Yes, WE all love RSS, but I’ve found that the higher one goes on the corporate food chain, the less likely they are to use RSS — and prefer receiving e-newsletters. Maybe you didn’t ask this question because it’s not Web 2.0, but it’s still an extremely important question relative to which digital alternatives are really desired by printed magazine readers.

Something like Second Life gets a lot of attention in our universe, but in the real world, it may get attention (the cover of Business Week, for instance), but little sustainable traction across broad industries. Yeah, it’s cool for Sun and some consumer packaged goods companies, but it’s hardly ready as a mainstream marketing tool. Way too early.

Anyway, e-newsletters rule in the real world, even if they’re not Web 2.0. That’s a fact that can’t be denied.
http://www.fogliata.net/2006/11/30/presenza-magazine-web/ La presenza dei magazine sul Web

[...] Link: La presenza dei magazine sul Web. [...]
http://www.bivingsreport.com Todd Zeigler

David,

Good point. Perhaps we’ll loop back on e-newsletters and see how prevalent that is at some point.

Thanks for the suggestion.

TOdd
http://www.bivingsreport.com Todd Zeigler

David,

Good point. Perhaps we’ll loop back on e-newsletters and see how prevalent that is at some point.

Thanks for the suggestion.

TOdd
http://www.bivingsreport.com/2006/magazine-study-on-techmeme/ Magazine Study on Techmeme » The Bivings Report

[...] For the first time (I think), a piece from our blog was highlighted on the news aggregator site, Techmeme. A lot of people criticize Techmeme as being elitist and thus boring, since it only tracks a small number of high profile blogs and online media outlets. Jeremy Zawodny sums up the criticism pretty well in this post: “TechMeme is a useful service for many people. I used to be one of them. But I lost interest a while ago when it became far less useful for discovering stuff on that long tail of blogging. Anymore, a small subset of blogs (and increasingly non-blogs) hog much of the attention. That happens to be exactly what I’m not looking for most of the time.” [...]
http://betaalfa.polymono.net/2006/11/30/sa-anvander-tidningsmagasinen-webben/ Beta Alfa 2.0 » Så använder tidningsmagasinen webben

[...] The Bivings Report: The Presence of Magazines on the Internet [...]
JD

This misses a big differentiator among magazines — frequency (either weekly or monthly). Weeklies have heartbeats approaching newspapers, while monthlies have more evergreen content. Also, as it compared circulation figures of weeklies directly against monthly, this really isn’t a rank-ordered list of the 50 biggest magazines (People, for instance, is the biggest boy on the block here, and there are a number of weeklies in the 300,000-900,000 circulation range that are larger than those on the list).
JD

This misses a big differentiator among magazines — frequency (either weekly or monthly). Weeklies have heartbeats approaching newspapers, while monthlies have more evergreen content. Also, as it compared circulation figures of weeklies directly against monthly, this really isn’t a rank-ordered list of the 50 biggest magazines (People, for instance, is the biggest boy on the block here, and there are a number of weeklies in the 300,000-900,000 circulation range that are larger than those on the list).
http://davidblack.wordpress.com/2006/12/01/links-for-2006-12-01/ links for 2006-12-01 « David Black

[...] The Presence of Magazines on the Internet – The Bivings Report “Despite their failure in terms of Web features, it should be recognized that magazines have taken on a more effective general strategy than newspapers when it comes to the Internet” (tags: internet magazines journalism trends stats) [...]
http://www.bivingsreport.com Todd Zeigler

JD – great point. We’ll go in and see if we can divide the data between weekly and monthly and see if there is a difference.

Thanks for the distinction.

Todd
http://www.bivingsreport.com Todd Zeigler

JD – great point. We’ll go in and see if we can divide the data between weekly and monthly and see if there is a difference.

Thanks for the distinction.

Todd
http://www.eleganthack.com/archives/magazines_online.php IA? EH.

Magazines Online…

Reading The Presence of Magazines on the Internet –The Bivings Report I……
http://www.redaktionelles-wissensmanagement.de/?p=5 Redaktionelles Wissensmanagement » Blog Archive » Wie US-Printmagazine Web-2.0-Technologien nutzen

[...] Ob und wie die 50 größten amerikanischen Print-Magazine Web-2.0-Technologien nutzen – das hat das amerikanische Marktforschungsunternehmen The Bivings Report (TBR) untersucht. Die Ergebnisse wurden am Mittwoch, 29. November 2006, in einer 15-seitigen Studie (doc-Datei) veröffentlicht. Eine Zusammenfassung bietet das TBR-Weblog. Zu den wichtigsten Ergebnissen heißt es im Weblog: [...]
http://citizenmediawatch.com/index.php/2006/12/02/magazines-in-sweden-far-behind/ Citizen Media Watch » Magazines in Sweden far behind

[...] Recently the Bivings group, a republican-supported PR firm with a somewhat bad reputation for applying unorthodox marketing methods, conducted an investigation into the state of American magazines online. They found that most of the top 50 magazines in the US are not making use of web 2.0 features. What astonished me the most was that only eight percent let the readers comment on articles. Six percent use tags, and 38 percent offer reporter blogs, though not all of those allow comments. 46 percent of the sites offer message boards or forums. [...]
http://www.rexblog.com/2006/12/02/16297/ rexblog.com: Rex Hammock’s weblog » Blog Archive » The downside of Web 2.0-centricity

[...] Here are the flip sides of the same coin: In the same week that research is released suggesting magazine people don’t “get” Web 2.0, on TechCruch (the gatekeeper of Web 2.0-worthiness), Michael Arrington displays how a Web 2.0-centric mindset can equally harm ones ability to “get” magazines. [...]
http://www.billtrippe.com/archives/2006/12/the_state_of_ma.html billtrippe.com

The State Of Magazine Websites…

PaidContent.org points to some research, The State Of Magazine Websites. (via Buzzmachine) The Bivings Group, which earlier this year did a comprehensive review of newspaper websites, has done it again with magazine websites: it researched the websites…
http://danblank.com/blog/2006/12/04/the-state-of-magazines-online/ Dan Blank: Publishing, Innovation and the Web » Blog Archive » The State of Magazines Online

[...] The Bivings report studied magazine websites for their use of web 2.0 elements. Some key findings: [...]
http://www.openthedialogue.com/2006/12/lotd_december_4th_1.html Open The Dialogue

LOTD: December 4th…

Like Brian Oberkirch, I really enjoy strategies that get down into the nitty-gritty of who a company is reaching out to and why. Outreach means absolutely nothing if it’s to the wrong group. Hey, if I’m not worthy of my……
http://www.marketersstudio.com David Berkowitz

Great research. Thanks for contributing to the broader industry knowledge.
http://www.marketersstudio.com David Berkowitz

Great research. Thanks for contributing to the broader industry knowledge.
http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/003908.php CyberJournalist.net

Bivings: Magazines not using Web 2.0…

The Bivings Report analyzed the top 50 most circulated magazines in the United States and found that magazines are not making use of Web 2.0…….
http://komunikacii.net/?p=663 Komunikacii » Присуство на магазините на интернет

[...] The Bivings Report компанијата која пред некое време спроведе истражување за присутноста на весниците на интернет, по слична методологија сега врши анализа на најпопуларните американски магазини т.е. нивното интернет присуство. [...]
http://komunikacii.net/?p=662 Komunikacii » Присуствот на магазините на интернет

[...] The Bivings Report компанијата која пред некое време спроведе истражување за присутноста на весниците на интернет, по слична методологија сега врши анализа на најпопуларните американски магазини т.е. нивното интернет присуство. [...]
http://www.pageturner.info/?p=392 PageTurner.info » US-amerikanische Zeitschriften-Sites und ihre Features

[...] (Quelle: The Bivings Report, The Presence of Magazines on the Internet, 29.11.2006) [...]
http://www.magazinsubscriptions.ws Bien

Very informative article. Gives us an idea what big companies are thinking which small companies can leverage from. Thanks for the research.
http://www.magazinsubscriptions.ws Bien

Very informative article. Gives us an idea what big companies are thinking which small companies can leverage from. Thanks for the research.
http://www.magazinesubscriptions.ws Bien

Very informative article. Gives us an idea what big companies are thinking which small companies can leverage from. Thanks for the research!
http://www.magazinesubscriptions.ws Bien

Very informative article. Gives us an idea what big companies are thinking which small companies can leverage from. Thanks for the research!
http://www.bivingsreport.com/2007/missed-opportunities-for-the-new-yorker/ Missed Opportunities for the New Yorker » The Bivings Report

[...] It’s a great example of how reporters and magazines should be using their websites to complement the articles they publish. [...]
http://mktg.idared.net/the-social-web/big-media-as-a-driver-for-mainstream-adoption-of-web-20 Big media as a driver for mainstream adoption of Web 2.0 at mktg brainlog

[...] First, here is a report comparing offline magazine websites’ web 2.0 features: “Analyzing the presence of American Magazines on the Internet“. They found that 48% of the top 50 most circulated american magazines’ websites uses RSS, and 40% of them have at least one reporter blog. [...]
http://www.bivingsreport.com/2007/tbg-to-speak-at-the-magazine-publishers-of-america-on-february-6th/ TBG to Speak at the Magazine Publishers of America on February 6th » The Bivings Report

[...] On February 6th, Erin and I will be giving a presenation at the Magazine Publishers of America offices in NYC on the use of the Internet by magazines. We will talk about how aggressively magazines are adopting Web 2.0 features, review examples of best practices and speculate a bit about what will come next. [...]
http://www.bivingsreport.com/2007/the-magazine-study-revisted/ The Magazine Study Revisted » The Bivings Report

[...] Check out our magazine study here and our newspaper study here . [...]
http://www.MagazineDiscountCenter.com Ryan

The consumer magazine subscription is still alive and full effect. Although the article was timely and relevant, I’d like to believe that people still enjoy the old fashioned luxury of sitting around and sifting through pages of entertainment and beyond. Online magazines have become a thing that will not remain strong – I know, I sell magazines and sales have been moving along steadily. There has been no decline, people just don’t find the same satisfaction with sitting in front of a computer as they may hanging on a couch, beach, plane, etc.
http://www.MagazineDiscountCenter.com Ryan

The consumer magazine subscription is still alive and full effect. Although the article was timely and relevant, I’d like to believe that people still enjoy the old fashioned luxury of sitting around and sifting through pages of entertainment and beyond. Online magazines have become a thing that will not remain strong – I know, I sell magazines and sales have been moving along steadily. There has been no decline, people just don’t find the same satisfaction with sitting in front of a computer as they may hanging on a couch, beach, plane, etc.
http://www.MagazineDiscountCenter.com Ryan

http://www.MagazineDiscountCenter.com is still in effect even after the drive of onlien consumer magazines. The consumer magazine subscription is still alive and full effect. Although the article was timely and relevant, I’d like to believe that people still enjoy the old fashioned luxury of sitting around and sifting through pages of entertainment and beyond. Online magazines have become a thing that will not remain strong – I know, I sell magazines and sales have been moving along steadily. There has been no decline, people just don’t find the same satisfaction with sitting in front of a computer as they may hanging on a couch, beach, plane, etc.
http://www.MagazineDiscountCenter.com Ryan

http://www.MagazineDiscountCenter.com is still in effect even after the drive of onlien consumer magazines. The consumer magazine subscription is still alive and full effect. Although the article was timely and relevant, I’d like to believe that people still enjoy the old fashioned luxury of sitting around and sifting through pages of entertainment and beyond. Online magazines have become a thing that will not remain strong – I know, I sell magazines and sales have been moving along steadily. There has been no decline, people just don’t find the same satisfaction with sitting in front of a computer as they may hanging on a couch, beach, plane, etc.

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We are pleased to announce the launch of the Brick Factory, a Washington, DC-based digital agency founded by former employees of The Bivings Group. You can read the details of the transition here.

As a result of the change, The Bivings Report will no longer be updated, although we intend to keep it up for archival purposes. You can read the Brick Factory's new blog here.

The Presence of Magazines on the Internet

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