Reading is not a natural act. Or, as neuroscientist Marianne Wolf (2008) explains, “we have no reading genes.” Reading is a cultural activity that has undergone profound changes across the years. Wolf suggests that “we are [presently] experiencing a shift from the reading brain, which has been a hallmark of the human species for millennia, to the digital brain.”
Words have shifted from being on books, magazines and billboards to living on computers, smartphones, laptops, televisions and tablets. And with that, the act of reading has dramatically changed. At imgZine, we have a closer look at the different aspects of this new reading behavior. After all, engaging your audience is only possible when you know how your readers behave. In this post, we’ll explore the lifecycle of digital magazine content in order to help you capitalize on and understand your target audience’s reading behavior.
Taking a lifecycle approach to digital content
According to the product lifecycle theory, a “series of changes occurs in a product between one development stage and the identical stage in the next generation.” This theory also applies to digital magazines, even though their cycle develops much faster.
There are four different phases: product introduction, growth phase, maturity and downturn. Understanding these phases helps you understand your audience’s reading behavior. With this, you should be able to perfectly respond to what your readers want.
To explore the lifecycle of content on mobile devices, we searched for patterns in our digital magazines apps: Digital newspaper apps, Thought leadership apps, and Internal communications apps. When do digital articles become old? And which are the most popular moments for different kinds of digital content? Check out our infographic below to find answers.
This is how you could adopt your marketing strategy
Based on the results, we suggest the following:
- The lifecycle of news articles such as actualities, industry insights, and internal news ends soon,
thus content should be updated faster than opinion and background articles. - If you do not have time to update frequently, combine your news related articles with other kind of articles.
- Opinion articles don’t need to be updated as frequently as actualities, but in all cases you should be aware
to keep publishing articles. - Slowing down your publishing speed might lead to disappointed readers.
Once they leave a mobile app, it’s really hard to get them back.
Would you like to know more about reading behavior on tablets and smartphones? Follow us on Twitter and like us on Linkedin to stay informed about our upcoming research papers and reports on digital reading behavior. And if you want to share your thoughts with us, feel free to post them below!
