The Effects of Website Provision on the Demand for German Women's Magazines

Abstract

What happens to demand if a magazine launches a website? This question is empirically analyzed for the German women's magazine market, a particularly large segment of the German magazine where fierce competition is reigning. Models for differentiated product demand are estimated on panel data covering the period 1990 to 2000, showing that website provision does not significantly affect magazines' market shares. Magazines that launched a website face a significantly lower price elasticity of demand than competitors that did not go online. Descriptive evidence on the magazines' website contents shows that websites are used to provide supplementary information and to advertise current print issues.

Keywords: differentiated product demand models, magazines, instrumental-variables estimation, panel data

JEL Classification: C3, L1