• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, February 10, 2010

Industry events and associations are still the most common sources of information for magazine publishers trying to keep up on new trends and important developments in the business, according to the results of a new survey released by LogicLab, with a total of 69% selecting these choices.

The favorite venues were industry-specific events, with 22.4%; events sponsored by magazine trade publications, at 10.3%; and regional events, at 10.3%. The favorite association categories were regional (12%), industry-specific (10.3%) and associations for publishing generally (8.6%).

On the news front, the Internet is also a popular destination for magazine publishers and execs, per the LogicLab survey. Asked to rank information sources relative to each other, 37.9% of respondents chose general Web sites and industry-specific Web sites, followed by 31% for press releases and newswires, 17.2% for industry associations, 13.8% for emails, and just 12.9% for national print magazines and newspapers.

However, this hierarchy was inverted when it came to finding out about new products and services, with print articles dominating at 49.1%, followed by one-on-one phone calls at 47.2%, and direct emails at 41.1%.

Within the Internet category, Facebook Groups are the most popular online forum for magazine publishers and execs looking to share information with each other and get the latest news on industry trends. 28.1% choose Facebook Groups as their No. 1 online destination, versus 19.3% for LinkedIn and 17.5% for Twitter.