Member Magazines Increasingly Moving to Digital or Web-based Offerings, But Print Retains Value

By Association Adviser staff

According to our latest Association Adviser enews reader poll, nearly two in five (38.2 percent) of the 102 respondents (as of June 14) believe the next version of their member magazines will be digital only. Nearly one in four (22.5 percent) believe it will more closely resemble a microsite than a magazine per se, and less than one in six (15.7 percent) believe it will remain print only.

According to our 2011 Association Communication Benchmarking Study, two-thirds (66.3 percent) of the 674 responding associations are producing digital versions of their member magazines today, and 27.6 percent are publishing their eZines on a monthly or more frequent basis  – that’s about six percentage points higher than the number of association who publish their print magazines on a monthly or more frequent basis.

Does this spell the end of print? Hardly. Nearly one in four associations (23.6 percent) plan to use an integrated approach that offers members their magazine in a variety of convenient platforms including digital, Web and print.