PMB readership results hold steady for most titles; essentially the same as spring release

The average readership of all the magazines reported in the now-twice-annual Print Measurement Bureau (PMB data) was about 1.05 million readers, with reader-per-copy figures essentially the same as in the Spring 2009 results. On average, larger Canadian magazines measured had about 5 readers per copy.

In some reports, note was made about readerships up or down -- for instance Reader's Digest "dropping" 146,000 since the first half of the year. But this represents only about 2% of the total and RD remains Canada's largest magazine by readership. Some caution needs to be exercised about drawing conclusions about relatively minor variations in what is, after all, a sampling exercise. Some people in the industry have been wondering aloud whether twice-annual releases really provide data that is more meaningful than the former annual numbers.

The five largest English magazines by readership were:

• Reader's Digest (6.4 million)
• Canadian Living (3.8 million)
• Chatelaine (3.5 million)
• Canadian Geographic (3.5 million)
  
• Kraft's What's Cooking (3.4 million)
  

In French publications, the largest magazines by readership were:

• Qu'est-ce qui mijote (1.4 million)
• Coup de pouce (1.2 million)

The study sample included about 25,000 interviews over the past two years and covered 114 magazines that subscribe to PMB. Magazine readership is only one part of the study, which also probes purchasing habits, by product and publication, which allows advertisers to determine the most effective and efficient publications for their ad placements.