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Half of Brits now read digital magazines with 10% keen to see more interactive advertising according to lekiosk research

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By Gillian West, Social media manager

June 3, 2013 | 3 min read

More than one in two Brits have now bought and read digital magazines, up from one in three in 2012, according to research from digital magazine platform lekiosk.

As well as uncovering that half of all Brits have consumed a digital magazine the survey of 2,000 consumers nationwide commissioned by OnePoll also revealed that one in 10 Brits would be happy to see interactive advertising in digital publications. Almost a fifth said they would like to see more video content, with 15 per cent claiming they would like to be able to share digital magazine articles with friends. Just under half (40 per cent) of those surveyed also said they would prefer digital editions to be ‘exact replicas’ of their print counterparts.

“It’s clear from our research that a high proportion of British consumers want reading a digital magazine to feel like reading a print magazine, albeit with certain added, interactive features – like adverts they can click on and videos they can watch. Publishers need to start working on these new formats now: the UK’s love affair with the magazine is as alive as ever – but digital magazines have never been as much a part of that as they are now,” commented Nathaniel Philippe, one of the founders of lekiosk.

According to lekiosk almost one in five Brits (19 per cent) now read magazines on tablets, a significant rise from one in 20 in 2012. The ‘Zines on Screens’ project uncovered that one in 20 are buying more magazines digitally now than ever before, with one in 10 18-24 year olds reading digital magazines. Of those surveyed 14 per cent were reading magazines on tablets on an issue by issue basis, with six per cent (around one in 20) taking out a subscription to a digital magazine.

Over one third of UK consumers said they enjoyed purchasing single issues, with 17 per cent preferring a monthly ‘bundle’ of magazines. Buy-one-get-one-free offers were found to be the most popular promotion to get Brits to subscribe to a digital magazine with one in five consumers drawn in by the offer.

In terms of where Brits read digital magazines one in 20 confessed to reading on the toilet, a fifth read digital magazines while traveling, with the majority of reading happening at home in living rooms (36 per cent) and bedrooms (22 per cent). Digital magazine consumption was also found to be helping magazines reach new audiences out with their home market; one in 10 said they had purchased a magazine from outside the UK, with a third saying they would be likely to purchase a magazine produced abroad and men being more likely than women to read foreign magazines.

Philippe added: “Digital magazines are easily exported across borders and continents and we’ve seen quite a few users from countries where we don’t source magazines download our apps to get access to the magazines from the countries where we are working with publishers. We’re seeing the start of a trend which could see the digitisation of magazine content drive the globalisation of a wide range of magazines.”

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