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RESEARCH

Digital IQ® INDEX

Magazines

The L2 Digital IQ Index®: Magazines measures the digital footprint of 87 magazine brands. The study ranks the titles according to their performance across 350 data points and four dimensions: Site, Digital Marketing, Social Media, and Mobile. Each brand was assigned a Digital IQ and corresponding ranking of Genius, Gifted, Average, Challenged, or Feeble.

“Technology did not get the memo regarding traditional media’s business model around aggregating eyeballs. Even with total advertising revenue down 20 percent from its pre-crisis peak, the business model for the magazine industry remains opaque.” —Scott Galloway

Key Findings

Digital IQ is positively correlated with a brand’s per-page advertising revenue, one of the best proxies for a book’s perceived influence, relevance, and impact on readers.

Size matters. Publications associated with large portfolio companies (e.g., Condé Nast) score better in aggregate, suggesting economies of scale translate to the digital realm.

High circulation does not consistently produce large online communities. In this industry, social media prowess is the result of active effort, not a function of past success in traditional media.

For most magazine brands, mobile strategy is iCentric. Only 13 percent of brands apply resources toward all of the following platforms: Mobile-Optimized Sites, iOS, Tablets, Android, and e-Readers.

TIME Magazine tops the rankings, outperforming every magazine across each scoring dimension—Site, Mobile, Digital Advertising, and Social Media. Though a healthy 37 percent of titles achieved “Gifted” classification, TIME emerged as the sole publication earning a “Genius”-level Digital IQ score. The top 10-ranked brands are: