Print editions of magazines remain an integral part of Canadian youth’s media diet according to the latest report from the Print Measurement Bureau (PMB).
The research body’s Spring 2011 study found that people aged 12 – 24 read an average of 3.6 issues of PMB-measured magazines each week, slightly less than the national average of 3.8 issues.
PMB president Steve Ferley said the data debunks the prevailing notion that digital is killing print. “It’s an important figure, because people get carried away with things that are maybe not happening,” said Ferley.
The figure highlights yet another good-news readership report for the Canadian magazine industry, with the readers-per-copy figure for the 61 English-language titles included in the current study only slightly lower than it was in 2008 (5.1 versus 5.2).
Similarly, the average degree of interest in Canadian publications has remained stable at 6.8, while average time spent reading of 41.9 minutes is also consistent with previous years.
“It’s not as if there is a diminishing level of interest in the printed copy of magazines,” said Ferley. “The media world is changing rapidly, but the reality is people are still reading printed magazines.”
Although the general impression is that the web is siphoning away print readers, fused data with comScore Canada found that among the 30 measured titles in the PMB/comScore database, a magazine’s website added an average of 15% unduplicated readership to the print product.
The spring report produced no significant changes in the overall magazine landscape, with Reader’s Digest remaining the country’s most widely read publication with 5.93 million readers 2+.
Canadian Living is the country’s second most-read title with 3.99 million readers, followed by Kraft Canada’s custom title What’s Cooking with 3.45 million, Chatelaine with 3.36 million readers and Canadian Geographic with 3.31 million.
Qu’est-ce qui mijote is the most widely read French-language title with 1.2 million readers, followed by Coup de Pouce with 1.1 million and Touring with 1.08 million readers.
