Newspaper readership remains strong in Canada
Satisfying Audiences Blog | 18 October 2010
It's a good news story: print readership is up, print and online readership up even more! The recent survey released by NADbank shows newspapers across Canada holding a very strong readership position.
In the one-million-population-plus Canadian markets, print and online newspaper readership has grown by more than 500,000 readers since 2005. Those top markets show total weekly newspaper penetration levels of between 75% to 80% of the adult population. That's an impressive reach.
Toronto remains one of the toughest competitive markets anywhere, with seven English-language daily publications (one not measured in NADbank) reaching roughly 3.5 million adults every week. Over the past year, weekly print readership rose 2% in Toronto, online grew 4.5% and combined the print/online combination grew by 3%.
Who says people are not reading newspapers anymore?
The Toronto Star, Canada's most-read newspaper, fared well in this most-recent release, with print weekly readership growing by 4.6% and the print/online combination weekly reach up 5.3% to just over 2.3 million readers per week. That's a nice showing for a large North American metropolitan newspaper.
Across Canada, newspapers remain strong. Also, it appears that while online readership for news continues to grow, it is not replacing the print habit for most newspaper readers.
The challenge for traditional media operations will be in attracting younger users. While the overall readership levels released in this study are indeed impressive, it is an aging demographic. Even the free-distribution newspapers tend to have a slightly older audience. The same can be said for traditional online news sites.
The good news, though, is that Canadian newspapers remain relevant to readers and a great vehicle for advertisers to reach consumers. The demise of newspapers is greatly exaggerated. But it is critical that we take longer-term trends seriously. We must continue to reinvent ourselves and better evolve to meet changing consumer habits.
It's a great time to be in newspapers.