‘All-you-can-read’ digital magazine app Readly has released its annual report into the trends, habits and insights of readers on its platform from the past 12 months.
The report reveals that across the 5,000 titles that are available on Readly in over 50 markets, digital issues were read 83 million times throughout 2019.
Although the findings are specific to the £7.99/month app, the report provides some fascinating insights into the habits of digital magazine readers around the world.
Here, we round up the most interesting findings, and what they mean for publishers with their own digital editions.
Time well spent
Of particular interest is the level of user engagement with the app. The total average time each subscriber spends with Readly is just under 7 hours a month, with the average user session being around 21 minutes. This is an impressive level of attention given the levels of demands on consumer time.
This dedicated engagement from users isn’t unique to Readly. Jonny Kaldor, CEO of digital publishing platform Pugpig, says that publishers are beginning to recognise the long-term value of apps as a way of deepening their relationship with readers.
“We have found that, while the web gives publishers access to a huge number of readers, it’s in their apps where we see the greatest engagement,” he explained. Many titles on Pugpig-powered apps are hitting over 25 minutes per session, and 15 sessions per month – similar levels of engagement to titles on Readly.
“We’re also seeing a significant uptick in publishers pursuing paid content strategies and switching to direct-to-consumer membership models,” said Kaldor.
Readly also included their data for when the most popular reading times are. Unsurprisingly, the bulk of time is spent in the evenings, concentrated particularly around 5-8pm. This suggests that users ‘lean back’ with the app at the end of the working day, when at home. At weekends, usage is spread much more evenly throughout the day.
Read the rest of this article by Esther Kezia Thorpe on What’s New in Publishing…
