Toronto’s Newspaper Audience Databank (NADbank) has released new mid-year data indicating that nearly three-quarters of Canadian adults read either a print or online edition of a daily newspaper in a typical week, with about half reading on an average day.
In the country’s top seven markets, 8.6 million people 18+ read a daily newspaper. That number increases to 9.7 million when factoring in digital readership.
Weekly print readership in the top seven markets has fallen by nearly 500,000 since 2012. The decline is less pronounced when combining print and online readership, with a drop of approximately 170,000 in the same period.
Print’s weekly reach remains significantly higher than that of online in those markets, with 55% of survey respondents indicating they read only a print edition in a typical week, compared with just 11% of respondents who read a digital-only edition.
Thirty five per cent of respondents in the top seven markets said they read both print and online.
Daily newspaper readership is highest in Winnipeg, with 83% of people 18+ – approximately 512,400 people – indicating they read either a print or online edition in a typical week.
That is followed by Montreal at 77% (2.5 million) and Ottawa-Gatineau at 76% (795,100). Among the major markets, weekly newspaper readership is lowest in Toronto and Edmonton, at 71% of adults.
Not surprisingly, print-only readership in the seven largest markets varies significantly by demographic, with 54% of adults 65+ saying they read only a printed edition, compared with just 26% of people 18-24.
Readership for individual titles, including weekday readership, weekend readership, 6/7 day cume and digital readership, can be found here.
