Indonesian’s Magazine Consumption – Survey Report

Despite the advancement of new media, apparently conventional media is still chosen by some people, including magazine. In Indonesia, many magazines from many genres are still popular. Magazine in printed format is also still circulating even though some magazines have published the e-magz (electronic magazine) format. Therefore we are curious whether Indonesian do still read, buy, and subscribe printed magazine. Regarding to this matter, recently Jakpat has conducted a survey in order to see Indonesian’s preferences and habit of magazine consumption in their everyday lives, in this case it’s printed magazine only. This survey involved 1532 respondents from across Indonesia. For the further notes, Jakpat’s respondents in this survey are Indonesian smart-phone users, with a range of age from 18 to 48 year-old.

First of all, we found out that there are more than half (54%) of our respondents who admit that they are frequently reading magazine. Surprisingly, there are more men than women who apparently often read magazine (55% VS 53%). Henceforth, the top five kinds of magazine they frequently read are: (1) lifestyle magz as chosen by 53%, (2) health magz as chosen by 36%, (3) sports magz as chosen by 35%, (4) family magz as chosen by 26%, and (5) automotive magz as chosen by 25%. Moreover, photography magz and magazine for kids are the next favorite, with both chosen by 21% of our respondents, while politics magz is right after it as chosen by 19% of them. We found that there are some differences between men and women regarding to their preference of magazine they often read. Women’s top three are: (1) lifestyle magz as chosen by 71%, (2) health magz as chosen by 42%, and (3) family magz as chosen by 39%; meanwhile, men’s top three are: (1) sports magz as chosen by 52%, (2) automotive magz as chosen by 41%, and (3) lifestyle magz as chosen by 39%.

In regards to the habit of reading magazine, apprently most of our respondents (81%) admit that they frequently read magazine at their home. Furthermore, there are 37% of them who read it in any waiting room of any public place, and also 33% of them who read it at their office or school. There are also 18% of our respondents who often read magazine at a restaurant or cafe, and 14% who read it at a hospital or health clinic. In addition, there are 13% of them who read magazine at a beauty salon and 8% who read it at a motor vehicle repair shop.

Next question is, do they own the magazine they read or do they just borrow it from someone else? Apparently, we found that there are more than half of our respondents (55%) who admit that the magazine they often read is their own. On the other hand, we also found that 67% of them also admit that they often borrow magazine from other peope. Surprisingly, there are more men than women who often read magazine which is their own (59% VS 50%).

After exploring about the habit and preference regarding to read magazine, next we’re going to look further toward how our respondents buy magazine by retail. Apparently, we found that among those who frequently read magazine, most of them (62%) admit that they often buy magazine by retail. Furthermore, men are more likely than women to buy magazine by retail (39% VS 35%). The top five kinds of magazine they buy by retail are: (1) lifestyle magz as chosen by 50%, (2) sports magz as chosen by 30%, (3) health magz as chosen by 26%, (4) automotive magz as chosen by 22%, and (5) family magz as chosen by 20%.

Regarding to the frequency of buying magazine by retail, half of our respondents (50%) admit that they often buy it less than once in a month, while 44% of them buy magazine by retail for about 1 to 5 times in a month. There are also only 6% of them who buy magazine by retail more than 5 times in a month. Henceforth, regarding to the amount of money they spend to but magazine by retail in a month, more than half of our respondents (57%) spend less than IDR 50,000, while 36% of them spend about IDR 50,000 to IDR 100,000. There are also only 7% of them who spend about IDR 100,000 to IDR 500,000.

Next, we would like to explore in regards to the habit and preference of subscribing magazine. Apparently, we found that among those who often read magazine, there are only 21% of them who subscribe to a certain magazine. Moreover, there are more men than women who subscribe magazine (12% VS 10%). The top five kinds of magazine they subscribe are: (1) lifestyle magz as chosen by 43%, (2) sports magz as chosen by 27%, (3) health magz as chosen by 25%, (4) automotive magz as chosen by 23%, and (5) family magz as chosen by 22%.

Lastly, when asked about how much they spend in a month for subscribing magazine, almost half of them (45%) spend approximately from IDR 50,000 to IDR 100,000, while 34% of them only spend less than IDR 50,000. There are also 20% of them who admit that they spend about IDR 100,000 to IDR 500,000. In addition, there is only 1% who apparently spends more than IDR 500,000.

For more detail you can download XLS report at the button below (bahasa). JAKPAT report consists of 3 parts which are 1) Respondent Profile, 2) Crosstabulation for each question and 3) Raw Data. Respondent profile shows you demographic profiles ( gender,age range, location by province, and monthly spending). Cross tabulation enables you to define different demographic segment preference on each answer.