Don’t believe everything you read about the newspaper industry.
According to the latest Newspaper Audience Databank survey results released Wednesday, the vast majority of Canadians continue to read newspapers.
Last year, 69 per cent of Canadians – 12.9 million people – read a newspaper over the course of a week, and when online readers are added in, that number grows to 77 per cent.
“Newspapers continue to play an important role in the lives of Canadians,” said Metro English Canada group publisher Bill McDonald. “Readers in the millions rely on newspapers every day for the information that is important to their lives.”
As newspapers maintain their strength, Metro Canada is setting the industry standard – not just as the most read free daily in the country, but for all papers.
Metro Canada now reaches more than 1.1 million readers every day, an increase of 157,600 (17 per cent) over 2007. Weekly Metro readers in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax total 2.26 million, or 12 per cent more than in 2007.
“The Metro brand has solidified its leadership position from coast to coast,” said McDonald. “Readers and advertisers alike turn to Metro first every day for information, ideas and inspiration.”
In Vancouver, Metro’s weekly readership grew by 16 per cent, having attracted more than 50,000 new readers compared to NADbank 2007.
“Of the many good news nuggets, I’m especially pleased by our growing receptivity with young, urban adults,” Metro Vancouver publisher Maryse Lalonde said. “In fact, we were the only newspaper in Vancouver to have increased our readership, by 21 per cent, among adults aged 18-34.”
Metro Vancouver also saw gains on the web, with 65 per cent more readers citing they read an issue online in the past week.
“Metro is committed to providing its valued readers our quality content in the format that suits them,” Lalonde added. “We’ve recently launched a variety of mobile options after having fine-tuned our web product.”
