Excited about the future

The newspaper industry continues to evolve. And evolving with it are television, radio and magazines. For newspapers the good news is that the number of Canadians reading daily and community newspapers has not declined in the last decade. This past week I attended the joint convention of the Canadian Newspaper Association and the Canadian Community Newspaper Association in Toronto. Several presentations were made showing newspaper circulation, readership, trust, and advertising success with newspapers.
That information was garnered through studies carried out for Daily newspapers by Canadian Facts and often noted at NADbank. The study measured readers in 81 daily markets across Canada. And papers discovered that 48% of adults 18 and over have read the most recent daily paper in their city. And that 73% have read a daily paper in the week.
It was interesting to note that more papers are being printed and distributed in Canada than ever. Today there are more titles in circulation than a decade ago.
A similar study that was released in March 2010, by ComBase that was under taken by Leger found that 72% of all Canadians have read the last edition of a community newspaper. 229 community papers from St. Johns, Newfoundland to the west side of Vancouver Island participated in the study. The study also found that 86% of Canadians have read the last three of four editions of a community newspaper in their market.
The Fort Frances Times participated in the ComBase study and the numbers of district residents who had read the last edition of the Times was 83% and the last three of four editions, the number almost reached 90%.
Often, newspapers have been their own worst enemies in not telling their customers how popular papers are. An amazing fact is that when one looks at readership that combines both print and online versions, the numbers grow to 90%.
The NADbank study also examined the way Canadians read advertising. One of the more interesting discoveries was that readers who saw an ad in a paper and then online at the newspaper portal were 20% more likely to remember the advertisement.
Angus Reid noted in talking about two major media studies that his company has performed in the last year showed that Canadians prefer traditional mediums for their information. That included print, and broadcast. People’s greatest trust of information came from family and friends. Least trustworthy were social networks and blogs.
And yet, futurists showed the over 400 newspaper people present, some of the gadgets papers in other parts of North America and the world are using. The specials “Aps” that have been created for the I-phone, Blackberry and Android are delivering news, sports weather around the clock. The new I-Pad that was only introduced by Apple less than a month ago already has newspaper people excited.
Easy to use, the device will generate the full sheet of a newspaper that can be quickly read and offers features that were only dreamed of three years ago.
We came away excited about the future, and enthused about newspapers in Canada. Canadians reinforced through surveys in over 300 locations that newspapers are the important and trusted providers of news to families. And Canadians expect that old fashion media “print” will be around for a long time to come.

–Jim Cumming,
Publisher