Going Digital

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, April 1, 2004

Byline: Susan Thea Posnock

Online magazines are certainly hitting their stride

Magazine Websites are outstripping their print parents in ad pages (see story p. 36.) and more and more subscribers are opting for electronic delivery. The BPA, which audits online delivery as well as print circulation, recently compiled a listing of the top 10 magazines delivered online. All are versions of print products, not just online-only magazines.

Top on the list is Java Developer's Journal, a product of SYS-CON Media. "We've been growing our digital subscriptions actively for the past 24 months, more or less in line with customer bandwidth," says Jeremy Geelan, group publisher. Of the magazine's 162,019 subscribers, nearly 70,000 (43 percent) receive it in digital format. Geelan says the magazine's readers, developers and information systems managers are natural early adopters: They don't need to call the help desk to open their digital mags.

Geelan notes that digital has a unique advantage when it comes to international subscriptions. "It's deliverable by us instantaneously whether it's to Baltimore or Bali," he says.

Charles Mast, senior vice president of consumer marketing for Ziff Davis, says research conducted for the company has shown that digital delivery of magazines such as eWeek, which has 57,500 digital subscribers (about 14 percent of its circulation) is as effective as the print version. "It's working out well from a reader's standpoint, and many advertisers are receptive to it and want to take advantage as well," says Mast.

TOP 10 DIGITAL MAGAZINES AS OF 6/30/03