Libraries buying digital magazines for their borrowers

A public library in Phoenix, Arizona started in January to make 290 magazines available through the mobile application Zinio, meaning that thousands of library users can read the magazines electronically. According to a story on AZCentral.com, the Phoenix library is one of 500 across the U.S. which subscribes to Zinio and then allows its borrowers to check out an expanding inventory of magazine titles.

Phoenix paid $7,000 for a year’s Zinio subscription and will pay $60,000 in user fees per year. The library's web content librarian proudly said that one staff member saved $190 in fees in a test of Zinio before it was rolled out last month.

The library says it is not intending, at this time, to reduce the number of print magazines to which it subscribes. And borrowers have access only back a year because Zinio doesn't maintain an archive.

Jim Schmidt, with Recorded Books LLC, a Zinio partner, works with libraries and said offering electronic magazines is a good deal for the library because print magazine circulation is decreasing and advertisers benefit, he said.

“We think it’ll increase the readership,” Schmidt said. “The subscriber pays for the cost of print (magazine) and its distribution. In the digital world, you don’t have that cost ... the distribution is through digital, and it’s very efficient ... and it supports the advertisers.”