CONSUMERS CALL MAGAZINE PERSONAL, RELEVANT.

I've always loved magazines. Cover headlines call to me. Photos, colors, design and type captivate me. I rarely walk by a newsstand in the airport without buying a magazine, even if I'm already lugging more than I want to carry. I'd rather devote my reading time to a magazine -- any magazine -- than to just about anything else.

Most "print" people are like that. We're the ones who help support the 6,000 or so consumer magazines being published today. We also cheer on the hundreds of new titles each year that try to find their niche in the marketplace.

So I wasn't surprised when I read that magazines are considered the most "personal" and "relevant" medium, according to the results of a recent media-use study -- holding their own against the Internet, as well as cable and network television. The study was conducted by research firm Erdos & Morgan on behalf of the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA), which may account for some bias toward magazines. A six-page questionnaire was sent to 8,000 random consumers and garnered a 56 percent response rate, so the study deserves some notice.

Erdos & Morgan set out to quantify the relationships that consumers have with different media and to document the impact of those relationships on an advertiser's message. MPA hoped results of the survey, called "Media Choices 2000," would help guide publishers and advertisers in their quest to connect with consumers who are facing an ever-expanding number of information sources.

Responding to the statement "It is usually tailored to meet my individual needs," 39 percent of survey respondents pointed to magazines, 29 percent to the Internet, 19 percent to cable television and 13 percent to network television. The fact that there are magazines targeting men, women and children of every age, in every region of the country, and of any political leaning, type of business or hobby accounts for some of magazines' ranking as "most personal" medium. But the Web and cable television boast the same niche marketing.

Along the same lines, on the subject of relevancy, 35 percent of respondents said magazines "contain information that I am most interested in," while 30 percent cited the Internet, 20 percent cable television and 15 percent network television.

The study concludes that consumers are more likely to pay attention to an ad appearing in one of their favorite magazines than on their favorite television shows or Web sites. More respondents reported that they purchase products as a direct result of magazine advertising than any other media measured.

While 71 percent of respondents report being "often overwhelmed by the amount of information available," it seems they do some of that to themselves. They "multi-task media," according to the survey, in that 73 percent said they read a magazine while watching television; 48 percent read a magazine and listen to the radio; 40 percent use a computer and listen to the radio; but only 4 percent read a magazine while using a computer. (I'm one of the latter.)

As for the long-predicted demise of print at the hand of the Internet, it doesn't appear to be happening. It seems consumers just continue to make use of all media available to them. When asked if they spend the same or more time with a medium as they did two years ago, 74 percent of magazine readers affirmed they did, compared with 90 percent of Internet users, 75 percent of cable television viewers and 62 percent of network television viewers.

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More information can be obtained from Brian Moore, vice president of research with Magazine Publishers of America, 212/872-3722.

Debby Hartke is a writer and communications consultant based in St, Louis.