• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, January 30, 2012

While more than half of both male and female tablet owners are interested in reading digital magazines, the proportion is especially high among males, with 77% of male tablet owners saying they want to read digital magazines on their device, compared to 68% of female tablet owners.

That’s according to the latest research from GfK MRI’s iPanel, a new survey group composed exclusively of tablet and e-reader owners.

Overall, 71% of tablet owners said they were interested in reading digital magazines on their devices. The proportion was even higher among younger adults, with 85% of male tablet owners 18-34 saying they would like to read digital magazines, along with 78% of female tablet owners in the same age range.

Tablet ownership also encourages readers of both genders to read back issues of magazines: 19% of tablet owners who read a magazine on their device in the last 30 days also read back issues of the same title, according to GfK MRI --  including 20% of male tablet owners and 19% of females. 

In terms of how tablet owners read magazines, the most popular way is apps, with 65% of tablet owners who read a magazine in the last 30 days doing so via an app. Meanwhile, 47% of tablet owners accessed magazine content by visiting the Web site, and 37% read a digital reproduction of the magazine.

Risa Becker, senior vice president of research for GfK MRI, observed: “The fact that younger men who own tablets are interested in reading digital magazines bodes well for digital magazine advertisers, since this demographic has been historically hard to reach.”