Time Well SpentThe Magazine Publishing Industry's Online Niche

Kim Kooren

Time Well Spent

IntroductionWriters’ Argument & Presenter’s positionResearch previously conductedTwo-phased studyGroup Leisure Magazine Current Reality

Writers’ Argument & Questions Asked

The Impact of Brand SpentThe Impact of Social MediaThe Impact of Editorial Intervention and the Audience

Stanford’s Research on Time Spent

Conclusion

The Magazine Publishing Industry’s Online Niche

Time Well Spent

“Online Magazines have readers’ letter pages, chat forums and otherInteractive services which enrich the readers’ ‘time spent’.”

However…

Are the new fulfilling online experiences also time-saving?

Can we conclude whether this kind of collective intelligence enhances, and saves us time, and does it improve our acquired information?

Research1. Previously conducted research in the public domain

2. Weedon & Ingham’s: Two-Phased Survey• 1st Study: quantitative• 2nd Study: selective

The Outcome of the Surveys: W2H - What, Where, and How - readers read the online & printed version

1.Key elements for online use are: speed, direct delivery and searchability of information2. Links are most effective in feature or information pages3.Online offers the quality specialist material in quantity4.Online offers a wider range of perspectives to the reader5.Online increases the accessibility of archived articles6.The frequency of access and time spent differs for online vs offline (issue: gettingsidetracked)7.Option of redistribution of information8.Inconsistency in perception and behavior

1.Preference for online ad spent is only 4% vs the actual ad spent of 21% for online2.Perceived value of the amount of detailed information (print thought to be more,but is less compared to online)3.Speedier look up for searches online does not save user time vs actual searchingthe magazine

Group Leisure Magazine: Current RealityOnline Version:• Launched in Sept 2003• 30,000 visitors p/m; accessing nearly 300,000 pages of information• Fully integrated across platforms - TV, Offline, Online-, interactive website• Number One, most visited group travel site in the UK• Portal to potentially hundreds of people with an interest in the group travel• 10 Years of searchable data• Updated daily news and an e-mail broadcasting service• A free design service

Source: Group Leisure Magazine 2010

Writers’ Argument & Questions Asked

Are the new fulfilling experiences onlineenriching and enhancing the time spent while aiming to be time-saving?

Questions Asked:

1. The battle for brand dollars & market share

2. The impact of online communities

3. The erroneous impression of editorial intervention & the potential of a broaderaudience.

1 The Battle of Brand Dollars & Market ShareWriters’ argument - lack of confidence of advertisers to invest online

This can partially be supported in terms of user experience. According to NielsenCompany the online creative units still tend to replicate the print experience, and thus isnot taking the user experience to the next level.

HOWEVER… Online Ad Spending Is Emerging ( 13; 2010 )

1a Online Advertising Spending Is EmergingFacts & Reasoning:1. Ad spend in the UK grew by 21% YOY (IAB, 2008)2. Online travel spending will increase by 34% in 2011 compared to 20063. Online advertising expenditure will take up 32.5% vs print media 30.3% (2010)4. The emerging value of online advertising is because the ROI can be accurately

monitored compared to calculating the ROI for print editions.

Online Ad Metric System

2 The Impact of Social Media•17% of time spent is devoted to Social Media & Blog sites, which is up by 6% (2009 vs 2008)•Facebook taking up 4% (out of 17%) & Twitter’s unique visitor has increased 959% YOY•Online video time spent up 46% YOY & Mobile video audience increased by 70% (2009 vs2008)

Nielsen (Aug 2009)

2a The Impact of Social MediaFurthermore, users feel overwhelmed by all the available information on the web, and thus:

– Social Networks are a great vehicle to guide them– Social Networks are great to deliver the right content– Social Bookmarking are great to show the relevancy of, annotate and share information

• Snippet taken from the groupleisure.tv on Youtube.com

For video, consult link slideshare

3 Editorial Intervention & Reaching a Broader Audience

Editorial InterventionIn the old days, the editor/publisher ruled, these days the reader/blogger dictates

Yandell controlled the online submissions, however, thanks to the forums, andimmediacy of participation, this control has diminished.

HOWEVER …this may contribute to a devaluation of the quality of the information, andthe voice of the magazine.

Audience

Potentially tap into a vast borderless market pool of other group travelers, new andvaluable customers, industry specialists, advertisers, and other people alike.

Stanford’s Research on Time SpentWhen the experience online increases:

the time spent increases & the activities users engage in, increase

Overall the majority of respondents spent:• 90% reading their emails• 77% looking up information online• 69% surfing the Web, etc..• 54% looking up travel pages (info and sales)

FURTHER…The more time spent online:

1. the more the user loses contact with their social environment10 hr/wk; 15% less social activity

2. the more the user turns their back on traditional media10 hr/wk; 65% less spent

3. the more the user spends time working at home (when online time spent increasesin the office)

So therefore can we say:Time Well Spent or Time Badly Lost

Writers’ Overall Conclusion

Choice of selection - what to read & when has enriched the time spent by providing a wider, deeper,better search, which may have taken longer or was not possible with the print version.

Spending time has become more important than monetary spend.Key element: making choices

Spending time in terms of the value of the content online, still depends on the readers’ needs andsocio-cultural references.

Overall accessing a magazine online increases the time spent; and it is perceived to be a better bargain - free access of information contributes to its value; readers aim to make choices tochoose one format over the other in exchange for something else.

AND….

we do see that new online experiences are not always time-saving, due to:• undefined value of non-expert information• readers get site-tracked• information overload and convolution

ReferencesEmarketer. Optimism for US Online Ad Spend (Internet). April 7, 2010. Available from:

<http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007618> (Accessed 20 April 2010)

Cassar, K (2009). Is the Ad Biz Through With Click-Through? Nielsen. New York: New York.

Hughes, T (2010). Digital Spend Outpaces Print. Available from: <www.praxmatrix.com.au> (Assessed 22 April 2010)

AOP (2010). UK online ad spend grows 21%. The Association of Online Publishers (Internet). Available from:http://www.ukaop.org.uk/research/ukonlineadspendgrows21percent0860.html (Accessed 5 May 2010)

JupiterResearch (2006). Online Travel Spending To Reach $128 Billion in 2011 (Internet). Available from: <http://www.travelindustrywire.com/trends-detail-sid-25159.html> (Accessed 22 April 2010)

Nielsen (June 11, 2009). Time spend viewing videos online up 46%. Nielsen. New York: New York

Nielsen (2008). Online Ad Spend per Industry. Available from: <http://www.travelindustrywire.com/trends-detail-sid-25159.html> (Accessed 20 April 2010)

ReferencesNielsen (2009). The Shifting Media Landscape. New York: New York

Nielsen (2009). Online Display Ad Spending on Top Social Network Sites More than Doubles in August 2009 (Internet).Available from: http://en-us.nielsen.com/main/news/news_releases/2009/september/nielsen_reports_17

(Accessed 20 April 2010)

Stanford University. What do users do on the Internet (Internet). Available from: <http://www.stanford.edu/group/siqss/Press_Release/press_detail.html>. (Accessed 20 April 2010)

Facebook (2010). Available from:http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=297558346034 (Accessed 30 April 2010)http://is-is.facebook.com/groupleisure?v=info (Accessed 30 April 2010)

Youtube (2010). Available from:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyNlxEcfxtc (Accessed 30 April 2010)

Twitter (2010). Available from:http://twitter.com/groupleisuremag (Accessed 30 April 2010)