Research assesses value factors in magazines

M-real, a supplier of magazine papers, and the University of Helsinki have developed a new method for systematically assessing how different factors in a magazine create value for readers.

The research will help publishers obtain a realistic picture of what readers feel is important in magazines and develop their titles.

It also relates the perceived value to the actual copy price of a title and indicates a title's added-value potential, with the new methodology putting magazine purchase in the context of other optional spending by readers.

The survey, conducted by M-real with the University's Department of Psychology, was conducted with readers of home and decoration and special interest magazines, but the methodology is equally applicable to other titles or sectors.

Readers made suggestions as to how a magazine could be developed and become more desirable to them.

By adding value through, say, providing more varied and current content or extra practical tips, they might be ready to pay up to 25 per cent more.

This could be achieved without dramatically changing the existing magazine 'equation' that includes all factors of content, style and physical properties.

The research also found that readers value having material they can return to several times and which can be easily read in many situations - such as travelling.

Readers also appreciate photographs, seeing them as 'a channel to another world', and vivid photography that is reproduced well, helps them engage with the content.

A title's visual appearance and physical properties were also mentioned spontaneously by 40 per cent of readers as creating value for them.

Furthermore, a third said paper type was a value-creating factor when seeing and comparing competing titles printed on different papers.

Paper is deemed to be subordinate to the content of a magazine when it is good enough and suits the image, but if the paper is perceived as not supporting a title's image, it changes into a decisive factor that could make a reader buy another magazine.

The research also found that readers are sensitive to negatively perceived changes, such as content becoming more superficial, a change in editorial style and tone; poorer-quality appearance; or paper that feels unpleasant.

The survey is the most recent undertaken as part of M-real's Reader Preference Research, an initiative running with the Department of Psychology at the University of Helsinki since 1998.

Close to 50 studies have been conducted to date, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, in order to examine matters relating to printed media, reading and paper.

M-real provides training and research services based on the findings and methodology.

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