Other experts on the panel, which comprised media journalist Ray Snoddy, Emap Consumer Media chief executive Paul Keenan and MPG’s Marc Mendoz, all agreed that while they haven’t located the right recipe for an online platform, magazines needed to offer multiple platforms.

Spring also said that magazine websites should not replicate print editions and should instead give the user a reason to visit. She conceded that there was “a lot of bollocks talked about online”, but that a website should contain promises and aim to create an online community.

Spring illustrated Future’s Games Radar as a good example of a portal where there is a community of gamers visiting the site to share thoughts and play computer games.

Hepworth added: “The internet should be an experience. What you are competing for is people’s attentions. Once you have got there attention you have to turn it into some sort of engagement as soon as you can.”

He said that if an online offering really took off and you had an equivalent hit like Grazia then everyone would know about it within five minutes as is the nature of the internet. “We need to start a fire out there.”

Spring concluded that for magazine publishers to come up with a completely new concept they should “go out and beg, borrow, steal and copulate” in order to learn from children as they have no inhibitions or preconceived ideas.

Leading publishers Emap, IPC, The National Magazine Company and Condé Nast have all committed significant investments in expanding their online platforms during 2007.