1

A Project Report on
Customer Perception of Digital Magazines in reference to Outlook

Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Summer Internship Program

for the award of

Post Graduate Diploma in Management

Under the Esteemed Guidance of

Dr D.Ravinath

Faculty Guide Designation

Submitted by

P. Bhoga Raghu Sandra

Roll number. 221117

Batch No. 30

Vignana Jyothi Institute of Management

(Approved BY AICTE, Ministry of HRD, Govt of India)

Bachupally, Hyderabad.

2023
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GENERAL DESCRRIPTION OF INTERNSHIP

Title of the Project

Name of the student P. Bhoga Raghu Sandra

Student Roll No 221117
Name of the SIP company Outlook Group
Department (Where internship carried out) Marketing

Company Mentor Details

Name of the Mentor Mr. Ms. Dinakar

Designation Regional Manager
Contact details 7679629281
Email Id internship@outlookindia.com
Address Vidyanagar, Adikmet Main Road
Company Website https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine
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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this Project Report titled CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP OF

MAGAZINES IN REFERENCE TO OUTLOOK submitted by me is a bonafide work
undertaken by me and it is not submitted to any other Institution or university for the award of
any degree/diploma certificate or published any time before.

Name of the Student: P.B.Raghu Sandra Signature of the Student:

Date:
 4

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the Project Report titled CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP OF

MAGAZINES WITH REFERENCE TO OUTLOOK being submitted to Vignana Jyothi
Institute of Management is a bonafide work done by P.BHOGA Raghu SANDRA, bearing
Roll no. 221117, under my guidance.

Date:

Signature of the Guide

Name:
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Summer Internship

Program at The Outlook Group
was about Sales and Marketing
of
the company’s products. I,
, Enrolment Number-
20BSP3063, PGPM 2020-
22, ICFAI
Business School, Pune, worked
on a project with the company
for 14 weeks.
Outlook is a general-interest
English and Hindi news
magazine, it is a leading name
print
 6

media industry. Owned by the

Rajan Raheja Group, the first
copy of the magazine was
issued
in October 1995. The Outlook
Group’s headquarters is
located at Safdarjung Enclave,
New
Delhi.
The title of the report is
“SALES GENERATING
STRATEGIES FOR
OUTLOOK
GROUP'S MAGAZINES
USING CORPORATE
 7

PROMOTIONAL
ACTIVITIES &
DIGITAL MARKETING".
The object
The Summer Internship
Program at The Outlook Group
was about Sales and Marketing
of
the company’s products. I,
, Enrolment Number-
20BSP3063, PGPM 2020-
22, ICFAI
Business School, Pune, worked
on a project with the company
for 14 weeks.
 8

Outlook is a general-interest
English and Hindi news
magazine, it is a leading name
print
media industry. Owned by the
Rajan Raheja Group, the first
copy of the magazine was
issued
in October 1995. The Outlook
Group’s headquarters is
located at Safdarjung Enclave,
New
Delhi.
The title of the report is
“SALES GENERATING
 9

STRATEGIES FOR
OUTLOOK
GROUP'S MAGAZINES
USING CORPORATE
PROMOTIONAL
ACTIVITIES &
DIGITAL MARKETING".
The object
The Summer Internship
Program at The Outlook Group
was about Sales and Marketing
of
the company’s products. I,
, Enrolment Number-
20BSP3063, PGPM 2020-
22, ICFAI
 10

Business School, Pune, worked

on a project with the company
for 14 weeks.
Outlook is a general-interest
English and Hindi news
magazine, it is a leading name
print
media industry. Owned by the
Rajan Raheja Group, the first
copy of the magazine was
issued
in October 1995. The Outlook
Group’s headquarters is
located at Safdarjung Enclave,
New
Delhi.
 11

The title of the report is

“SALES GENERATING
STRATEGIES FOR
OUTLOOK
GROUP'S MAGAZINES
USING CORPORATE
PROMOTIONAL
ACTIVITIES &
DIGITAL MARKETING".
The objective is to find, attract,
and win new clients, nurture
and retain old clients by the
use
of promotional activities and
digital marketing. To increase
the outreach of ou
 12

. The Summer Internship Program at THE OUTLOOK GROUP was about Sales and

Marketing of the company’s products. I, Raghu Sandra-22117, PGPM 2022-24,

VIGNANA JYOTHI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, Hyderabad, worked on a project
with the company for 8 weeks. Outlook is a general-interest English and Hindi news
magazine; it is a leading name print media industry. Owned by the Rajan Raheja Group, the
first copy of the magazine was issued in October 1995. The Outlook Group’s headquarters is
located at Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi. The title of the report is “CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIP ON OUTLOOK MAGAZINES”. The objective is to find, attract, and
win new clients, nurture and retain old clients by the use of promotional activities and digital
marketing. To increase the outreach of outlook magazine by presenting a diversified portfolio
to the customers and understanding the buying behaviour of the customer. The project starts
with a sales and marketing task. It includes studying consumer behaviour, customer
interaction, collecting revenue through selling subscriptions. It is followed by
analysing data to understand consumer buying behaviour. Data collection of 50 company’s
Promotional, Marketing, Pricing strategies and to recommend best of their practices
to Outlook group. Primary and Secondary data have been used; the methodology used to
study the consumer buying behaviour towards Outlook Group's magazine was a survey
method using a questionnaire as a tool. Respondents include magazine readers,
prospects, and suspects. For secondary data, different sources such as different websites and
Journals were accessed. Findings imply magazines are well entertained, updated, and well
informed. Subscribers have a high demand for the improvement of services.
Subscription schemes attract more customers. People are highly interested in magazines
but are not aware of the offers and schemes. The recommendation for the group is that
their prime focus should be on the improvement of services and improving the
distribution channel. Also, a better renewal reminder system for the customers
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks and gratitude to my project guide

“Dr.D.Ravinath”, as well as our academics head gave me the opportunity to do this project
on the topic ‘Customer Perception of Digital Magazines with reference to Outlook’, which
also helped me in doing a lot of research and I came to know about so many new things. I am
thankful to them.
I want to share my heartfelt gratitude and sincere appreciation to my company mentor, Ms.
Dinakar, Regional Manager of Outlook Group, who recommended and created the project
framework. He constantly encouraged me to study and gain knowledge and assisted me at all
phases of the project by devoting her significant time and effort.

Date: Your Name: - P.Bhoga Raghu Sandra

Place: Hyderabad Roll no: - 221117

Batch: - 30th batch

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TABLE OF CONTENT

Sl No. Content Page No.

1 Introduction 8

2 PMCI Analysis 8

3 SWOT Analysis 15

4 Poter’s Five Forces 16

5 Introduction to the Topic 18

6 Project Work Area Deliverables (8-week period) 20

7 Objectives of the Project 21

Research Methodology

Limitations

8 Analysis and Interpretation 22

9 Findings 30

10 Conclusion 31

11 Bibliography 32

12 Annexure 34
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INTRODUCTION

Outlook Group is in the Print Media Industry, and it offers various products and services to
customers who are seeking reliable news. Products include physical copies of the magazines,
and the services are digital magazines that might be purchased either one time or subscription
based.
Before delving into the topic being studied - understanding customer perception and attitudes
towards digital magazines - it is important to have a picture of how the economic and market
of the news publishing sector is like. According to Leurdijk, Nieuwenhuis, and Slot (2012),
the news publishing industry is one of the sub sectors of media and content industries, and it
involves other actors as well, one of which is the magazine. Thus, for relevance and
simplicity reason, I am going to give only a brief overview of the news publishing industry,
while put more focus on magazine publishing.

PMCI ANALYSIS

Using PMCI analysis, businesses can gain insights into how their product fits into the market,
how their company competes with others in the industry, and how external factors influence
their overall business strategy. This analysis can help in making informed decisions about
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product development, marketing strategies, market entry, competitive positioning, and overall
business growth.

PRODUCT ANALYSIS

Product analysis is a systematic examination and evaluation of a specific product to gain a

comprehensive understanding of its design, features, functions, and overall performance. It is
a crucial process in product development, marketing, and improvement. The goal of product
analysis is to gather insights that can be used to optimize the product's design, enhance its
performance, and ensure it meets the needs and expectations of the target market.
Some of the products of Outlook Group are:

Outlook Weekly: Outlook, India’s most exciting weekly magazine covers the entire spectrum
of issues from current affairs, business, sports, lifestyle, technology, international affairs etc.
Outlook gives you a holistic picture, insightful analysis and fresh perspective galvanized a
sluggish market reeling under the impact of satellite Tv. Outlook quickly carved a significant
niche for itself among discerning readers who value its in-depth, investigative reporting as
well as its styling visual format. Known to be fiercely independent. Today, Outlook is the
preferred magazine of 1.5 million readers in India and sells more than 11.2 million copies
over the world.

Outlook Hindi: Outlook Hindi, a weekly news magazine, was launched in October 2002 to
establish significant presence amongst the vast Hindi reading audience. The product targets
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the evolved Hindi reader keeping their interests, realities & aspirations in mind. Outlook
Saptahik retains the core strengths of Outlook with objective, fiercely impartial and bold
journalism, while brandishing its own identity through a strong parallel editorial. The
magazine is empathetic to its target audience & is not a translation of English counterpart.

Outlook Traveller: Outlook Traveller is India’s No.1 Travel magazine. This is a monthly
magazine which covers domestic and international tourism, getaways, cuisines, and holidays
planning. Every month since June 2001 Outlook Traveller has introduced readers to the
wonders of unknown destinations while also encouraging travellers to take a fresh look at
familiar places. Whether people are planning a holiday, or simply dreaming of one, Outlook
Traveller continues to take them closer.
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Outlook Business: Another magazine by Outlook which covers business news, interviews of
business tycoons, the new jobs in offering. This magazine is most preferred by Business
schools, business professionals, businessman etc. This is a fortnight magazine by Outlook.
Outlook Business, in the true tradition of the Outlook group, has as it aims no less an
objective than the complete rewrite of what has been tried by the way of business journalism
in the magazine space.

Outlook Money: In July 1998, he group launched “Intelligent Investor” re-cherished as

“Outlook Money” as of 30-Nov-2002, India’s first personal finance magazine, which offers
sound strategies for the lay investor, especially the growing segment of salaried middle and
upper middle class and self-employed professionals. Its message is clear and simple: ‘Invest
well, borrow wisely, spend smartly’. Evidently, that message has gone down well: the
magazine sold upwards of 1,00,000 copies a fortnight within a year.
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MARKET ANALYSIS

Market analysis is the process of evaluating and interpreting data to gain insights into a
specific market. It involves assessing factors such as market size, trends, segmentation,
competitor analysis, customer preferences, regulatory environment, and economic influences.
By understanding these aspects, businesses can develop effective marketing strategies, launch
new products, and make informed investment decisions. Market analysis helps organizations
stay abreast of market conditions and identify potential opportunities and challenges. It plays
a vital role in business planning and decision-making, guiding companies towards aligning
their offerings with market demands and maximizing their chances of success.
As a part of the news publishing industry, the magazine market is in the situation that is not
different from that of newspapers. Most print magazine publishers are compelled to have
digital versions of their publications available on the Internet that can be accessed via
electronic devices (Gaumont, 2009). And even though the main source of the revenue is from
print, they are not going to give up on the digital products. It is obvious that those publishers
will not be able to make readers pay for the digital contents in any time soon; however, they
are hoping to discover a viable strategy by which they can drive more traffic for their
websites, which in turn attracts more advertisers.

COMPANY ANALYSIS

Outlook Group is known for publishing unbiased, reliable, and credible news. It is one of the
big players in the Magazines space.

Mr. Rajan Raheja is the owner of The Outlook Group. It was established in Oct 1995; the
Outlook Group is one of the magazine publishing groups in India. A group company
Hathaway Investments Private Limited entered the print media industry as a weekly news
magazine which was headed by Lt. Vinod Mehta. Outlook is a well-known brand and
appreciated in India as well as all over the world. It is one of the well-established brands in
India with its head office located in New Delhi and branches at various cities like Kolkata,
Bangalore, Gurgaon, Chennai, and Hyderabad. Mr. Vinod Mehta was the editor in chief when
the first issue of the magazine was printed. Outlook a weekly news magazine, galvanized a
sluggish market reeling Outlook under the impact of satellite TV.
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As outlook is a need for readers who understand the value, placed itself in depth. It is
perspective, provocative, engrossing through magazine which delivers up to date perspective
along with a holistic approach. It provides updates on politics, cricket, sports, cinema and
business news from India. Outlook has a loyal leadership and is socially responsible and
makes people think on interesting content investigative reporting as well as its enhanced
visual format. It connects to 1.2 million influential consumers, who are early innovators that
build brands and drive effective advertising. Outlook is today’s most preferred magazine of
around 2 million readers in India, and more than 12 million copies are sold every year. The
Outlook group consists of six magazines. One of those magazines is in Hindi and the other
five in English. The company is planning to focus more on digital aspects of the magazine
due to the changes in the market environment of Print media industry.

COMPANY MISSION AND VISION:

mission
To deliver superior value to our customers, shareholders, employees, and society at large.

vision
To be a premium global conglomerate with a clear focus on the business.

competition:
The competition is high in the print media industry, especially for magazines which Outlook
group manages. Competition for Outlook is either segment based or direct. Some of the
notable competitors are:
• India Today
• Discovery India
• Business Standard
• Forbes
• The Week
• Business Today
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INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

Print media, as anyone can understand, is one of the most important factors coming through
in the way a nation works. Newspapers, magazines, books etc. are ready by a lot of people
and are certainly one of the most trusted mediums of National and International news. India
has a vast array of Print Media with thousands of magazines and newspapers in circulation.
Top notch journalism, great reporting, press unity and a very strong network is what makes
print media so much of a success even today in the age of television and the internet. It is also
said that print media also helped literacy.

Since the introduction of digitization and the Internet, news consumption and information
seeking have changed like never before. A few decades ago, people turned to newspaper
delivered to their home or bought at newsstands, and waited for specific times when there
would be news broadcast on TV to keep themselves up to date with what was happening in
their community and around the world. Now lots of media products can be consumed upon an
on-demand basis, which means, for example, people can read news whenever and wherever
they want with Internet access on various electronic devices.

The news publishing industry has always been operated within a two-sided market in which
readers are the subsidized part. The major portion of the revenue is from advertising.
However, the revenue from advertising and distribution has been plummeting due to the
digitization of more and more media channels, which in turn leads to a wider range of choices
for advertisers (IFRA, 2006). Thus, the advertising expense is getting more and more
fragmented.
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SWOT ANALYSIS

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool used by individuals, businesses, organizations, and
institutions to assess their internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and
threats. The acronym "SWOT" stands for:
SWOT analysis of Outlook Group:

Strength:
1) Five different magazines which cover each and every segment of the market and fulfil
the needs of different age group belonging to different sectors.
2) Exclusive photography and articles Outlook does not copy the content from internet
and paste in its magazines.
3) Outlook has well organized and experienced manpower, which approach directly and
indirectly as well, to the readers.
4) Outlook has set up its own strong distribution channel, which circulate 1.5 million
copies in India.

Weakness:
1) It takes four weeks to deliver first copy of the subscriber and two weeks on case of
address change.
2) Not having a great online presence.

Opportunities:
1) Outlook can increase its product line by launching three new magazines, related to
auto industry, magazine for beauty parlour exclusively and Outlook technology these
can increase the market share of Outlook.
2) Outlook has the opportunity to promote its magazine at international level with
international edition.
3) It can focus more on digital magazines attracting young customer who usually read
more online than physical copy.

Threats:
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1) Strong competition – number of international brands are coming to India and

competing for the market share by increasing the product line.
2) With the rapid growth of sources of information and convenience of accessibility,
readers do not stick to only a few sources while they have other choices at their
disposal.

PORTER’S FIVE FORCES

The "Porter's Five Forces" is a framework developed by Michael E. Porter, a renowned

economist and professor at Harvard Business School. This framework is used to analyse
the competitive dynamics and attractiveness of an industry or market. It helps identify the
competitive forces that shape an industry's structure and influence its profitability.

Porter's Five Forces is a valuable tool for business leaders and strategists to assess the
competitive landscape and make informed decisions about market entry, pricing
strategies, and overall industry attractiveness. It is commonly used in strategic
management and helps companies understand their position in the market and develop
effective business strategies. The Five Strategies with respect to Outlook Group are:

1. Threat of New Entrants: The print media industry especially magazine space is
very competitive and very hard to enter. The possibility of a threat from a new
entrant is low. The distribution system is in place for a lot of the existing
companies and trying to better others and penetrating the market is hard in the
physical copy side of thing but for the digital side it can become even more
competitive with how easy it is to enter. By having a good strategy and
competitive price new entrant can post threat to Outlook Group.

2. Bargaining Power of Buyers: The prices are fixed and there is no room for
buyers to bargain the price. But customers can compare the prices of different
magazines and buy which suits their budget, people of India are very price
sensitive so it can be a difficult to put high prices and the margins in the print
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media industry are very thin. Customers can directly bargain with distributor or
use promo codes or discount codes in case of a digital magazine.

3. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Supplies play a very crucial role in maintaining

the quality of the paper and in some case supply of information. Having a reliable
and consistent supplier is important as the paper industry is very volatile. The
sudden increase in costs should be dealt with which happens often in case of
paper.

4. Threat of Substitutes: The threat of substitute is very high for Print media
industry, so availability of the product and being consistent is important. The
magazines market is very competitive and there is very small distinction between
different companies. The company should stand out by adding value in every
small aspect of the product.

5. Intensity of Competitive Rivarly: Some of the rivals of Outlook group are

Business Standard, The Week, India Today, Forbes, Etc. The intensity is very high
between these companies as it is very difficult to enter this market, the existing
companies have been trying to gain maximum market share since a very long
time. The difference between the magazines is very less which also makes it very
competitive. Substitution is also very easy which makes it a big rivalry between
these companies.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE TOPIC

With the core focus of this thesis project on customer perception towards digital magazines,
the literature review carried out looks first into the theory of uses and gratifications, which
intends to describe users’ intentions and purposes of the selection of a certain type of media.
After this, previous literature regarding business model for digital content products, trend on
consumers’ behaviour and attitude for digital magazines, and their paying intent will be
looked into.

Most of the recent studies about uses and gratifications on new media are related to the
Internet (Flavián & Gurrea, 2009; Stafford, Stafford, & Schkade, 2004). The digitalization
and convergence of media make it possible for users to access almost all kinds of media on
the Internet. In this sense, this study about customer perception of digital magazines also
relates to the use of the Internet and digitalization. So, it is important to have a glimpse of the
basic theory that is the foundation to understanding users’ purpose and attitudes to using a
certain kind of media.

Users’ needs and Gratifications.

Researchers have identified several gratifications derived from the use of the Internet
including information-seeking, pass time, interpersonal utility, convenience, entertainment,
modality, agency, interactivity, and navigability (Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000; Sundar &
Limperos, 2013). However, McLeod, Bybee and Durall (1982) theoretically and conceptually
distinguished two kinds of audience satisfaction as gratifications sought and gratifications
obtained, which should be studied individually in future research (cited in Ruggiero, 2009).
For instance, users seek entertainment when they use the Internet, but the degree to which the
entertainment and kinds of pleasure gained from using the Internet can be still unknown or
overlooked.

Basically, there are three kinds of gratifications including content gratifications, which
derived from media content, process gratification obtained from using the media (Rubin,
2009), and social gratifications, which refer to the use of media as a social environment
 26

(Stafford, Stafford, & Schkade, 2004). Gratifications, according to Katz et al., (1974), are
referred to as “need satisfactions” acquired after the audiences exposed to particular media
and contents that match their pre-held expectations (Cited in Sundar & Limperos, 2013).
Before the existence of digital magazines, no one would ever think that they were going to
enjoy reading those on computer, tablet, or their mobile device. As people have this choice,
they start to have demands and gratifications derived from using those technologies.

A study by Sundar and Limperos (2013) presented the possibility that technology can be a
contribution to creating new gratifications, and they also discussed potential gratifications
based on four classes of affordances - modality, agency, interactivity, and navigability. The
term “affordances” was first coined by Gibson (1977), which then Norman (1999)
conceptualized as “actionable properties.” (Cited in Soegaard, 2003). In other words,
affordances mean any attribute of something that can induce actions or interactivity for
human beings. The following is a brief description of each class of affordance. Modality
denotes different formats of media presentation such as audio, video, text, photo, graphic and
so on, which offers four sub-gratifications to users including realism, coolness, novelty, and
being there. Agency signifies users being able to share information and/or to be sources of
information/content. Sub-gratifications of agency are agency-enhancement, community
building, bandwagon, filtering/tailoring, ownness. Interactivity, as Sundar and Limperos
(2013) put it, is “the affordance that allows the user to make real-time changes to the content
in the medium.” Its sub-gratifications consist of activity, responsiveness, choice, control, etc.
Navigability allows for users’ navigating through the medium, and the sub gratifications of
navigability are browsing/variety-seeking, scaffolding/navigation aids, play/fun.

Trend of digital magazine

It is evidently clear that people are consuming more and more digital products and content
such as music, books, newspapers, magazines and so on, while the consumption of those
products as tangible entities is getting less and less. Magazines in particular have been
produced more and more in digital edition and the trend is that there will be more digital
magazines in the market. As cited in Silva (2011), according to a suggested estimation by
Renard (2007) from Media IDEAS digital magazines in 2022 would take up 30% of the
magazine market and 75% of all periodical market in 2032.
 27

Project Work Area Deliverables (8-week period)

• In the first week we learnt about different types of sales and sales processes. The first
task consisted of core sales in which we must identify the customer and sell him the
magazines. We used different formats such as social media, sales pitches to
prospective customers and connections to complete the task. We learned how to
customize our pitches based on the customer we are approaching. Learned about
digital products and how hard it is to sell something online.
• The Second task consisted of Customer Relationship Management. In this task we
learned about the digital aspect of the business and learned how a business can be
shown on web/internet. Got to understand consumer behaviour. Did a questionnaire
survey and did NPS analysis to understand where the Outlook Standard was when
compared to its competition.
• The Third task consisted of Market Research where we visited different distribution
centres to gather information regarding the current market environment and the
challenges that are being faced. We interpreted different limitations and challenges
that the Print media industry is facing.

• The fourth task consists of Marketing Analytics where we were give real-time data
sets and were trained to analyse, visualize and identify the problems with
recommendations.
• The fifth task consisted of Digital Marketing where we learned different aspects of
SEO and SEM. We learned how to best optimize and make use of the key words to
attract the customer.
• The sixth task is B2B marketing where we learned different attributes of the B2B
interaction.
 28

Objective of the project

• To understand the perception of customers on digital magazines compared to

physical magazines.
• To know the factors that are influencing customers to buy digital magazines.

Research Methodology

• Primary data – The primary information has been collected from people who are
aware of digital magazines and people from the company.
• Secondary data – The secondary information has been collected from the Journals,
Websites etc.
• Method of data collection: Questionnaire method was used here, we took 51
respondents. This is primary data.

Limitations

• The methods, devices, and procedures used to acquire the data might have made minor
mistakes.
• Data is only partially accessible.
• The time was less (8-Week) and hence a detailed analysis couldn’t be done.
• Just purposive sampling technique was used in this method.
• Only 51 respondents got included in the sample size.
 29

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

General Questions:

Interpretation: The above graph shows us the gender of respondents, with males being the
major respondents with 62.7% and females being the remaining 37.3% in the above give pie
chart.

Interpretation: The above graph shows us the clear indication of age group of my research
respondent age, that indicates major people are of age group Below 25 i.e., 33.3%, the next
major age group is 25 to 35 with 27.5% and follows as above pie chart.
 30

Interpretation: The above chart shows the Marital status of the respondents, majority of the
respondents are married with 56.9% and 41.2% people are unmarried.

Interpretation: The pie chart shows that most of the respondents are Under Graduates with
45.1% and with 31.4% Post Graduates make up the next highest respondents. Respondents
with SSC education background is 13.7% and Intermediate background are 9.8%
respectively.
 31

Interpretation: The above pie chart indicates the profession of my respondents, the majority
of them are salaried with 49% followed up by Unemployed with 29.4% and the rest being
Self Employed with 11.8% and retired with 9.8%.

Topic Related Questions:

Interpretation: From the above bar graph we can interpret that the majority of the
respondents buy magazines regularly with more people voting above 3 on the scale, 45.1%
positive response implies people buy magazines often.
 32

Interpretation: The above bar graph helps us understand some of the reasons why a person
prefers to buy magazines, what motivates him to buy magazines. The responses show that
credible news and gathering of news are some of the most important reasons why a person
chooses to buy magazines. Credible news being 60.8% and Gathering Information being
64.7%.

Interpretation: This question is asked to know how much time a customer spends his/her
time consuming the product or if at all they consume it. The bar graph shows that the majority
of the people spend good amount of time reading magazines with 43.1% of the people scoring
above 3 on the scale.
 33

Interpretation: The above question asks how interactive and accessible the customer finds
the digital magazine interface. One of the biggest challenges for online publishing companies
face is the navigability of the page, not everyone can understand how to find certain news and
easily use the platform. The bar graph shows that most of the people 37.3% of people don’t
like the magazine interfaces.

Interpretation: The above pie chart shows that the majority of the respondents still prefer the
regular physical magazine to digital copy with 58.8% to 41.2%. The gap between the two is
not very big and it is only becoming small as time passes.
 34

Interpretation: This bar graph shows what makes or what motivates a person to buy digital
magazines, majority of the people say digital magazines being Environment Friendly being
their no.1 reason why they buy it, it has a massive 70.6% approval. The second reason being
Easily Accessible and the third being Ease of Use with 56.9% and 52.9% respectively.

Interpretation: The above bar graph shows how satisfied the customers are with digital
magazines. The graph shows that majority of people are having neutral to negative feelings
towards digital magazines with
 35

Interpretation: The above pie chart shows that the majority of the people more than 78.4%
of people think Covid played a major role in fastening the digitalization of magazines. Only a
small percent of people, 21.6% think Covid didn’t have any affect.

Interpretation: The above graph shows what people think are some of the things a company
can do to improve the digital magazines or attract more customers. Reasonable prices with
60.8% is the major change people want publishing companies to make, the second one being
Covering News in More Areas with 58.8% and other are Better Designed and Optimized
 36

Page Layouts with 51% and More Exclusive Content with 41.2%, Availability in All
Platforms 27.5%.

Interpretation: The above Pie chart shows that people even after using digital magazines
majority of them still prefer the Physical Magazine, 54.9% of them prefer Physical and
the remaining 45.1% of people prefer Digital Magazines.
 30

FINDINGS

 Many of the old respondents i.e., people of age above 45 mainly prefer physical magazines while
the younger people prefer digital magazines more.

 The research shows that older respondents find it hard navigating through the online platform and
think that it should be more user friendly and optimized.

 One of the reasons for more people switching to digital magazines is Covid, since there
was no access to physical copies people started buying digital magazines which slowing
became a habit since it was so easy to access.

 Even with digitalization of magazines people still prefer physical magazines over digital
magazines because of the tangible experience it gives.

 It can be concluded that majority of the respondents have similar views and perception towards
digital magazines.

 People think digital magazines are more ecofriendly, easy to access and are readily available
unlike the physical copy which takes a lot of time to get delivered.

 The study also shows that people spend a good amount of time reading the magazine.
Especially the older people.

Even if the experience of the customer is not very good with digital magazines, they still
think it is the future and has a huge potential. Some of the things that people think a
publishing company can do to improve/attract more customers are Reasonable pricing,
exclusive content, news coverage in more areas, better designed and optimized page
layouts and availability across all platforms.
 38

 The readers read print magazines to pursue their interests on particular topics, seek
entertainment, relaxation and education. These motivations are almost identical with
those of digital magazine readers. Nonetheless, the consumption behaviors of these two
groups of magazine readers are different. Also, the result from this study shows that most
of the print readers would not read digital magazines in the future.

CONCLUSION

This research paper constitutes the results of the research done to better understand the
Customer Perceptions of Digital Magazines. Digital Magazine is the future of magazine
publishing companies. A publishing company can sustain if it adopts technological
advancements and digitalization by switching to digital magazines. The four main
motivations of readers for reading digital magazines are: more knowledge, entertainment,
habit, and low price. Interactivity, convenience of reading, ease of search,
environmentallyfriendliness and reliable delivery are the most satisfying attributions of
digital magazines for the readers. Digital magazine readers have a slightly positive attitude
towards digital magazines, and yet most of them have not paid for the magazine. So, the
publishers should stick to offering free content or at cost, until they manage to offer readers
better quality content than what they can find for free online. Then it would be time readers
pay for what they read. By providing readers with values that meet their expectations of the
medium, their satisfaction can be quickly raised. From the study it can be understood that
people want more exclusive content, magazines at an affordable price and better designed and
optimized layouts/ interface.
 39

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 41

QUESTIONNAIRE

Gender

• Male
• Female

Age

• Below 25
• 25 to 35
• 35 to 45
• Above 45

Marital Status

• Married
• Unmarried
• Divorced

Education

• SSC
• Intermediate
• Undergraduate
• Postgraduate
 42

What describes you?

• Salaried
• Self Employed
• Unemployed
• Retired

6 How often do you buy magazines? 1 2 3 4 5

7 What makes you buy magazines? • Credible News

• To gather information (Travel,
cooking, etc)
• Visual Appeal
• Others: _________
8 How often do you spend time reading 1 2 3 4 5
magazines?

9 How interactive and accessible do you find the 1 2 3 4 5

digital magazine interface?

10 Was your experience with digital magazines Yes No

better than physical magazines?

11 If you prefer digital magazine what is the reason • Environment Friendly

behind it?
• Easily Accessible
• Ease of Use
• Exclusive Content
• Others: _______
12 To what extent are you satisfied with digital 1 2 3 4 5
magazines?

13 Do you think covid played a crucial role in Yes No

fastening the digitalization process of
magazines?
 43

14 What all can a publishing company do to attract • Reasonable Prices

more customers into buying digital magazines?
• More Exclusive Content
• Covering News in More Areas
• Better Designed and Optimized
Page Layouts

• Availability in All Platforms

• Others: _________
15 What do you prefer digital magazine or  Digital Magazines
physical magazine?
 Physical Magazines