#MagChat Magazine Facebook numbers

Rebecca Bredholt, managing editor at inVocus a media research firm, was inspired after a recent #MagChat to learn more about the use of Facebook by magazine brands. On the surface it appeared there was not a great deal of usage, however we were wrong. Below are some definitive numbers from her research, which we plan to discuss today at #MagChat [3 p.m. CST].

Among the higher circulation magazines, about two-thirds have both a Twitter and Facebook page. The lower circulation magazines tend to favor Facebook usage over Twitter, but not by much.

• 52.7 percent of all pitchable magazines in North America have an active Twitter handle.

• 47 percent of all pitchable magazines in North America have a Facebook page.

• 50 percent of North America’s top-tier magazines have a Facebook page, while 48.6 percent have a Twitter handle.

• 10 percent of magazines appear to be using Facebook exclusively

As a footnote to our research, we only track magazine that accept pitches from PR people and/or have pure editorial content – not advertorial or promotional like American Executive magazine, where you can’t get “featured” until you “buy an ad.”

We do include some medical journals, along with news+business, consumer + trade/industry magazines. This report might not have included any online only magazines.

Top Tier is defined as having between 250k and 1 million in monthly circulation.

Rebecca Bredholt has launched more than 18 award-winning magazines, overseen editorial departments of four national publications, and served as an editor for several consumer magazine Web sites before joining Vocus in 2006. She has also served as a Web correspondent from Japan, South Africa, and Ukraine. She currently oversees the Magazine Research Team and the Online Outlet Research Team, attends as many MediaBistro events as possible and always forgets her Digg user name and log in. Rebecca represents the Media Research Group at industry events such as the American Magazine Conference. She is also freelance writing for Yahoo! and is a huge fan of HARO. She holds a master’s degree in liberal studies from Rollins College.