According to the Alliance for Audited Media on Tuesday in its semiannual Snapshot report, digital editions comprise a tiny percentage of overall magazine circulation, at just 3.3%. Ad sales in digital editions up 25% in the first half of this year on this 3.3% total circulation isn’t significant compared to total ad revenue.
Game Informer Magazine tops the list with 2.9 million in digital subscriptions (but this is part of their Gamestop membership model). A far off second is Reader’s Digest, with 292,000 digital subscribers.
The take away is that digital is still a very small fraction of overall magazine sales even with 52.4 million of the US population owing some type of tablet device (as of December 2012, according to comScore 2013 US Digital Future in Focus.).
Magazines are based on the printed product. This is where brands are built.
[…] The big names in publishing remain solidly print-based with readership in the millions. And in spite of a reader base that is glutted with tablets and electronic readers, digital magazines comprise just 3.3% of overall magazine circulation. […]
[…] numbers look good. Not great, not best ever, but certainly there is enough good news to share. And digital’s share of the market sits at just 3.3% of overall circulation, certainly not the kill switch some […]