Dose says readership is 292,000

Dose, the daily tabloid magazine published by CanWest MediaWorks, has released figures it says demonstrates a strengthening readership among their key target -- young Canadians, 18 to 34. Data from an independent study by Ipsos-Reid said that its total readership was 292,000 in the last quarter.

It also said 72% of 18-34 year olds were aware of the magazine and 8% read the magazine yesterday. Almost half read at least three copies per week.

No details of the data, methodology, or the increase from previous quarters were included in the press release issued on February 28th.

When Dose was launched last fall, it reported a print run of 320,000 copies. At that time, the paper was to be distributed with newspapers in major cities across the country. Since then the paper has seemed to rely fairly heavily on pickup at colourful Dose street boxes. If the press run has remained constant, the reader-per-copy figure for Dose is 0.9.

UPDATE: A story in the Vancouver Sun says the 292,000 figure is a 20% increase in readership. It also says that the press run of Dose has been scaled back (though not to what).

(It may explain why the privately commissioned Ipsos-Reid data has been released now; perhaps to mitigate the likely lower number that will soon be shown by NADbank, which only measures readers 18+, in other words grownups. The 292,000 figure is based on everybody 2+, although it is difficult to imagine a 2-year-old reading and enjoying the magazine.)