Vividata offers comprehensive new measure of media audiences

The Canadian media industry now has a whole different way to measure audiences for magazine and newspapers.

Media analysis firms NAD-bank and the Print Measurement Bureau on Thursday launched an amalgamated organization called Vividata, releasing its first set of results aimed at reflecting the shift of consumer reading habits across print and digital platforms for magazines and newspaper brands. The results provide a comprehensive database of consumer demographics, media usage and product data.

The numbers for Postmedia Network Inc., whose titles include the National Post, show its total readership for print is 7.1 million weekly, easily the highest in the country and growing, in- cluding the flagship National Post’s 1.78 million readers. Postmedia’s total weekly footprint, including digital and print, is nine million readers, also the strongest in the country. Sun properties, also owned by Postmedia, had an additional three million readers. Torstar Corp. properties had 5.9 million print readers, and The Globe and Mail had just over three million.

“This is a very, very important day for the publishing industry. Finally, after almost two years of hard work, we have a single-source, fourplatform measure that is timely and fresh,” said Gordon Fisher, president of the National Post, a member of the board of NAD Bank and a founding member of the Vividata board. “And the news is very, very positive, proving without doubt that our brands are relevant, our audiences are growing, and we are being read by a highly attractive group of readers, including a surprisingly strong cohort of younger readers.”

Our brands are relevant, our audiences are growing

Fisher noted the results show that newspapers remain strong, reaching more than 70 per cent of Canadians each week, and that digital readership is exploding with four in 10 readers accessing newspaper content on a digital platform.

“Canadians spend upwards of 46 minutes a day in print and a very impressive 30 to 40 minutes a day in the digital world,” he said. “It is very important to note that this study is the result of an integrated effort by its broad tripartite board representing publishers, agencies and advertisers.”

The initial study provided digital metrics for 80 magazine and 78 newspaper titles.

Other findings in the results showed that newspaper properties reached 56 per cent of Canadian adults, up from 50 per cent five years ago. The percentage of those reading printed copies dropped five percentage points over the five years — from 46 to 41 per cent — but digital readers have almost tripled to 31 per cent reach.

Vividata’s new measurement captures readers across multiple digital devices including laptop/PC, mobile phone and tablet/e-readers. It found that 26 per cent of readers of daily newspapers read only a digital edition. It also found 70 per cent of digital readers are using their mobile device to read magazines and newspapers.