Remind Me Again Why We Went Digital?

I was talking to Jeff Martin today (yes, I know we have two Jeff Martin’s - plug in whichever one you prefer for the purposes of allegory) about market research.

For the past several years, we’ve seen market research studies published which largely ask readers how they "feel" about digital magazines. They also ask readers their opinion of how they interact with digital magazines. Heck, we’ve even published one. Jeff reminded me that the reasons these studies exist is because the answers are being compared to those readers previously gave about print, a product largely impossible to quantify in terms of market research.

Since comparison is a close cousin to benchmarking, I get this. At the same time, by asking readers how they think they feel about digital magazines, we’re kind of missing the point that we have all the data at our fingertips to tell publishers how they’re really behaving.

For example, in Zinio’s most recent study, readers are asked how much time they think they spend inside a digital edition. The reality is that - at least in the case of Nxtbook - we know the answer. The real answer. The honest-to-goodness truth. And while the truth hurts, it also will set you free. Or so they say.

It’s one of the things we need to figure out about digital magazines. Do publishers want surveys where we compare how readers think they behave, ala Readex and interviews, or do they want the real numbers, with the real engagement times and click-through rates, which are generally way better than what they experience on their websites. After all, when was the last time Google analytics asked you how much time you thought you spent on a website? And even if they did, would you be able to tell the truth?