Why read it on your mobile device? Change in reading habit of electronic magazines for university students

Abstract

Magazines, often published periodically with a variety of contents, have long been successful in catering to magazine readers' various content needs and reading interests. In recent years, interactive digital magazines instead of replicas of printed magazines, based on digital devices have been gaining popularity and preference due to its unrivaled convenience and interactivity. To some extent, many people's magazine-reading habits have been changed due to their adoption of mobile digital devices. This study is designed to analyze mobile digital devices' influence on magazine reading habits amongst university students in Hong Kong. Issues such as mobile digital devices' level of adoption amongst university students and their preferences on devices for different magazine types are analyzed. Our findings show that university students in Hong Kong read more types of magazines after they started to use mobile digital devices, mainly using tablets. The findings of the study are useful for librarians (academic librarians in particular) and digital publishing vendors to explore the issues concerning services and collection development of interactive digital resources.