A recent study commissioned by the Magazine Publishers Association (MPA) found that consumers rate magazines as the most personal medium compared with all media studied: Magazines were selected 39% of the time as "the medium usually tailored to my individual needs," compared with 29% for the Internet, 19% for cable TV and 13% for network TV. Mediamark Research, Inc., which conducts an ongoing survey to define magazine readership, learned that people devote time to magazines: The average reader spends 47 minutes with a magazine, as opposed to 30 seconds on an ad. Magazines have a unique capability to develop intimacy because they possess a combination of characteristics unmatched by other media: A magazine has a unique tactile and visual aesthetic quality that makes it enjoyable to read. A magazine is portable. Consumers can and do take them everywhere they go. A magazine has a long shelf life and is typically put down and picked up several times. A magazine is passed along from person to person. This significantly multiplies the exposure that a publication receives. If people enjoy magazines, spend time with them, take them everywhere, make them last, pass them to friends and associates and get their needs met by them, it makes perfect sense that they engender close relationships!