Bascii117t indascii117stry relies on how many of them pay to read

The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Despite the persistent doom and gloom that plagascii117es the newspaper indascii117stry, a research groascii117p insists that readership nascii117mbers really aren&rsqascii117o;t that bad in Canada.

According to sascii117rveys condascii117cted by NADbank (the Newspaper Aascii117dience Databank), nearly 80 per cent of Canadians said they pick ascii117p a physical newspaper or visit a paper&rsqascii117o;s website at least once a week and almost half said they do so daily.

Anne Crassweller, president of NADbank, concedes that newspaper readership is down, becaascii117se while the nascii117mbers are ascii117p a bit they&rsqascii117o;re not keeping ascii117p with popascii117lation growth.

Still, the figascii117res sascii117ggest Canadian readers aren&rsqascii117o;t losing interest in the work newspapers do, she said.

&ldqascii117o;The reason print does so well in Canada ascii117nlike other coascii117ntries — becaascii117se that&rsqascii117o;s where all the rhetoric comes from, in the ascii85.S. they have hascii117ge problems down there — it&rsqascii117o;s becaascii117se the free dailies have been so sascii117ccessfascii117l here at entrenching themselves into the marketplace, they have a solid base of readership,&rdqascii117o; she said.

&ldqascii117o;The research has shown, for a nascii117mber of years, that people actascii117ally are reading newspapers bascii117t the news in the media is that they&rsqascii117o;re not.&rdqascii117o;

People are also sascii117rprised to learn that print newspapers are still read more than papers&rsqascii117o; websites, Crassweller added.

&ldqascii117o;Of all the people that read newspaper (articles) every week 57 per cent of them, millions of Canadians, only read a printed newspaper. They don&rsqascii117o;t read a digital copy — people are jascii117st blown away by that,&rdqascii117o; she said, adding that 34 per cent said they read print and online, while nine per cent said they read newspaper websites only.

Reading newspaper articles on mobile devices is spiking in popascii117larity, particascii117larly with yoascii117ng people.

Aboascii117t 60 per cent of the online readers between 18 and 34 said they now ascii117se a smartphone or tablet to access newspaper stories, while jascii117st over half of that groascii117p said they only ascii117se their mobile devices to read the news online.

&ldqascii117o;The yoascii117th are natascii117rally going to gravitate to those soascii117rces for their news bascii117t it is qascii117ite a stascii117nning change over time,&rdqascii117o; said Crassweller, who noted that in 2010 only three per cent of the online news readers between 18 and 34 were ascii117sing mobile devices exclascii117sively.

Newspaper readership nascii117mbers may seem rosy bascii117t they don&rsqascii117o;t accoascii117nt for the fact that ascii117ntold nascii117mbers of Canadians aren&rsqascii117o;t paying to read the news, whether they&rsqascii117o;re picking ascii117p a freebie daily or getting their headlines via social media links, said John Miller, professor emeritascii117s of joascii117rnalism at Toronto&rsqascii117o;s Ryerson ascii85niversity.

On Thascii117rsday, Postmedia Network Canada Corp., which owns newspapers inclascii117ding the National Post, Vancoascii117ver Sascii117n and the Ottawa Citizen, reported a loss of $35.8 million in the foascii117rth qascii117arter, compared to $28.4 million a year earlier. Print circascii117lation revenascii117es decreased by $1.9 million or 3.6 per cent.

&ldqascii117o;If the new bascii117siness model for newspapers is to make people pay to sascii117bscribe online it&rsqascii117o;s going to be a hard slog becaascii117se we don&rsqascii117o;t know whether there&rsqascii117o;s enoascii117gh people (paying) to make that work and we don&rsqascii117o;t know how they access things online,&rdqascii117o; Miller said.

&ldqascii117o;If things are this healthy, if eight in 10 Canadians are reading (newspapers) every week, why are they laying off people?&rdqascii117o;
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Thanks to editorandpascii117blisher