Trade Association Standardizes Metrics to Assess Digital Magazines

As magazine brands have come to encompass more than just a paper product, publishers have discovered the rhapsodies of digital publishing such as the ability to measure minuscule fragments of everything from ad clicks to page traffic. Fast forward to today’s myriad of activity and audience data, which are available to gauge overall health of digital magazines, the only challenge lies in finding out which metrics really matter.

This week, Magazines Canada has released a new set of industry guidelines to provide advertisers, agencies and publishers with a consistent measure of engagement and readership in digital magazine editions.

There are 5 categories of audience data that will be measured over a period of 30 to 90 days, depending on the frequency of the title. The information would be reported as a 6-issue rolling average on a 14-week release. Provision is made for special interest publications (SIPs) to offer a 120-day metric.

“This is an important first step in marketing our magazine media brands on multiple platforms,” said Mark Jamison, CEO Magazines Canada. “By working together and with our partners in measurement organizations, Canada’s magazine media will provide a better understanding of the remarkable connectivity audiences have with our brands on every device.”.  Read full article here.

Publishers have not only discovered a truly sophisticated content experience in their move to digital media but also gained understanding into how users interact with digital magazine content. With advanced solutions offered by digital publishing vendors, publishers can still determine readers engagement with a publication; but they get access to actionable and timely intelligence and perform analyses in order to help them and their advertisers optimize magazine content and spaces for readers.