Newspapers holding their own, study shows

Papers still reach seven in 10 Canadians

TORONTO — Canadian newspapers continue to reach a huge audience and attract a vast number of young readers despite the serious challenges facing the sector.

A new survey from Newspaper Audience Databank Inc. (NAD-bank) found newspapers are still reaching more than 70 per cent of Canadians. And 70 per cent of young readers between 18 and 34 are reading newspaper content, too, primarily online.

The results demonstrate that newspapers are hanging onto their audience. Readership of physical newspapers has declined about two per cent over the past five years, but digital readership has jumped 40 per cent, NAD bank said.

“The overall readership levels are relatively stable,” said Sara Hill, NAD bank’s interim president.

Nonetheless, newspapers have faced severe revenue declines as increases in digital revenue have not come close to replacing falling print revenues.

The study found readers are spending 30 to 40 minutes a day with the digital paper, which indicates they are engaged with the product and not just clicking through stories.

Gordon Fisher, president of the National Post, said that is an important narrative for the industry to provide to advertisers. He noted advertisers think page view data is “almost meaningless” on its own. But they are much more interested if they can see genuine reader engagement.

“I think this is really important, and if we continue to see these kinds of results, we’ll start to see higher (online ad revenue). And it could be that that will translate into the ‘ah-ha’ moment in terms of how we make money in this new medium,” he said.

The data shows that Postmedia papers had weekly print/digital readership of 4.94 million people in 2014, essentially flat compared with the prior year. Daily Monday-to-Friday readership of the print and digital papers was 2.65 million people combined, down two per cent compared with 2013. Weekday digital readership climbed 7.7 per cent to 1.13 million people.

The NAD bank figures show that readership of the National Post’s daily weekday readership rose 2.1 per cent in 2014. The Globe and Mail’s daily weekday readership rose 6.6 per cent, while the Toronto Star’s dropped 12.7 per cent.

Overall, combined Postmedia/ Sun Media weekday print/readership was 8.4 million, 43 per cent of all Canadian adults.