In a recent survey ofpmereaders, 92% of you who receive ourdigital editionsay you would recommend it to a colleague or another industry professional. Aspme’spublisher, I’m very gratified to see that. If you want us to deliver our digital edition to your e-mail inbox every month, you can sign up for your free subscription atwww.pmengineer.com.
Although a relatively new way to receive industry news, digital editions of magazines already rate as the second-best source of information for the products you specify, according to our survey. You rank Web sites of manufacturers who actually make the products as the only source that’s better.
Of course, one of the benefits of receivingpme’sdigital edition is you get instant access to manufacturers’ sites by clicking on the links contained in our expanded new products section, case studies and advertisements. It’s hardly surprising then that more than a third of respondents to our survey find this immediate contact to industry Web sites to be an appealing feature ofpme’sdigital edition.
That being the case, make sure you look this month for our Brand Information & Specification Guide, which we publish and post every December. Manypmeprint edition subscribers hang on to the B.I.G. Book as a reference tool when they need to find a product, service or a manufacturer in a hurry.
Both print and digital subscribers, however, also should make use of our enhanced online version atwww.pmengineer.com/thebigbook. There you can search products by company name or browse by product categories. You’ll also find clickable links to go directly to a vendor’s Web site for detailed product information, including spec sheets and photos.
Readers who receivepme’sdigital edition find it has other advantages, according to our survey. Chief among them is the convenient delivery of the digital edition every month to their e-mail inbox, which appeals to almost two-thirds of respondents.
More than half of survey respondents like having the ability to downloadpme’sarticles to their computers. Almost half say that not having to store paper is a good thing, and nearly half like the fact that they easily can forward one of our articles to a colleague.
A third of respondents find our digital edition appealing because it represents a green form of media. A third ofpme’sdigital subscribers say they like reading articles online.
Our survey also asked whether you use social media in your work-related activities. Almost two-thirds say they do not. Of those who do, 77% say they use LinkedIn and 52% are on Facebook. Only 13% say they follow Twitter.
Our survey on pme’sdigital edition follows last year’s research that asked how you use the Internet. In 2009, 98% said you use the Internet for business-related purposes.
What may surprise you about last year’s research relates to the age of the respondents. About two-thirds were older than 50 with the mean age being 53 years old for all respondents.
One key difference in the findings of the two surveys shows a shift in how readers prefer to receivepme. Last year, 58% of respondents said they prefer to get industry information in print. In 2010, 57% of those surveyed say they preferpme’sdigital edition.
We will continue to monitor your preferences as we explore the enhanced capabilities of digital delivery, such as video and rich media. As your need to get detailed information quickly keeps growing, we’ll help you keep pace.
