Don't Call Them Readers

Magazine publishers are pursuing 33.5 percent more online initiatives in 2007 compared to the same time last year, according to research released by the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) today.

The trade association for the consumer magazine industry kept tabs on its members and found they had announced 207 digital initiatives compared to 155 in 2006. Those included video for Web sites, social network tools, user-generated content efforts and integrated marketing initiatives. MPA members include Businessweek, Forbes Media, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Playboy, Time, Wired and a host of others.

Howard Polskin, MPA’s senior vice president/communications & events, told me he started a file some year ago to save and monitor digital initiatives which grew into the results he announced today, and that the move for magazines into digital video, blog, podcasts and other content is to be expected in 2008.

“[Magazines] are using whatever platform they can to touch their… and I’m not going to use the word ‘readers’… to touch their users 24-7,” he said. “The people that used to consume magazine content used to be readers and now there is the subtle shift that it’s more important to call them users.”