Gorkana meets… PC Advisor

Jim Martin, the editor of tech magazine PC Advisor talks about the the title’s unique relationship with digital and ecommerce, and gives an insight into its most popular content and the ways in which it is consumed. 

Who reads PC Advisor, and what do they get from the title that they cannot find elsewhere?
The ‘average’ PC Advisor reader ranges from the geek for whom the tech they use makes a lifestyle statement, to the everyday person who needs to know the best laptop or smartphone for them. We provide independent and in-depth tech-buying advice they can trust, when they need it most, in language they understand.

Tech titles can be notoriously short-lived yet PC Advisor is more than 20-years-old. What is the key to its longevity?
We’re obsessed with understanding our audience, their needs, and the medium via which they access information. We transitioned to online more than a decade ago, and we scan the horizon for changing consumer trends. Just because something worked yesterday, doesn’t mean it is the right thing to do tomorrow.

PC Advisor is still in print as a monthly. What do readers get from the print title that they cannot get from an online only title?
The print- and digital magazines are curated books of the best evergreen long-read we produced that month. It’s a linear, leisure reading experience for hobbyists, rather than information found at the point of need.

How much crossover is there between the on and offline content you publish? What is the publishing strategy?
We produce content for online, and select a tiny fraction for multiple magazine titles including PCA, Android Advisor, and iPhone & iPad User. We love magazines, and will make them as long as it is viable, but pcadvisor.co.uk has a global audience of 30m users (10m in the UK), and our magazines have a readership of 30,000. We are a digital publisher at our core, with a sideline in other platforms.

What is PC Advisor’s most popular content, and why?
The information you look up on your phone when you are in a store, considering a purchase: reviews, group tests and buying guides.

E-commerce is a major revenue stream for the brand – when do readers become buyers, and how do you facilitate this?
We consider our audience to be buyers at various points in the buying cycle. So if a user lands on a PC Advisor tutorial, they are both a post-purchase consumer and in the early stages of consideration.

We provide a point-of-sale at every stage of the buying process; from tips and tutorials, and new product information, through reviews and group tests and on to deals pages.

What can PRs do to help? What content, in terms of topic or format, would you like to see more of?
Products, product information and access to product launches. We need products to review, and information about upcoming products. We will never break an NDA!

What do you recommend people should buy the PC Advisor reader in their family for Christmas?
The Amazon Echo Dot. It’s ridiculously good value at £49.99 and still does a lot even if they’re not an Amazon Prime subscriber.

• Jim Martin is editor of PC Advisor, call him on 020 7756 2875, or email Jim_Martin@idg.co.uk