PMB fall data shows readership of digital magazines up 57% in past 12 months

The fall 2014 Print Measurement Bureau information says that overall readership of digital magazines, which PMB has measured since 2013, has increased by 57%  to 2.9 milllion in the last 12 months.It also found that most digital magazine readers (80%) also read printed magazines. Only 20% read only digital. And the printed versions of the 81 PMB-measured titles has kept steady, reaching an average of 1 million readers per issue.

The data shows that in fall 2014, digital smartphone magazine readers increased 162% (927,000 to 1.6 million) and digital tablet readers 115% (582 to 1,251). It also showed that digital magazine reading is 55% higher in Toronto than in the rest of Canada. And the fused PMB/comScore database shows that incremental website reach of print magazines + websites has increased to 25%, compared with 15% in 2010.

The fall 2014 data, based on sampling over the past 2 years, shows the top 10 magazines in total readership:

	Total readers
Reader's Digest	4518
Canadian Living	3448
Canadian Geographic	3375
Kraft what's cooking	3348
Cineplex Magazine	3033
Chatelaine	2871
People	2730
CAA Magazine	2407
FOOD & DRINK	2088
Maclean's	2074

In terms of measured readers per copy, the top 10 were:

	RPC
The Hockey News Magazine	22.0
Canada's History	21.7
Outdoor Canada	20.6
Canadian Geographic	20.5
People	20.5
Canadian Gardening	15.6
Cottage Life	14.3
Sportsnet Magazine1	13.6
Dernière Heure	13.6
BRITISH COLUMBIA MAGAZINE	12.0

Full PMB topline data for fall 2014

PMB/comScore spring 2014 data shows increase of incremental readership reach of print + web

The spring 2014 Print Measurement Bureau study shows that readership of all PMB-measured titles has held steady with approximately 1 million readers and that the average readers per copy  is 5.1, slightly higher than the 10-year average, though slightly lower than spring and fall 2013.  

For the first time, PMB has released a fused database of PMB/comScore data at the same time as its main study. The fused data combines printed magazine readership with magazine websites' visiting figures on a net, unduplicated basis. Representing approximately 30 magazine titles, it shows that the incremental reach generated by magazine websites has increased from 15% in 2010 to the 2014 level of 25%.  

The new PMB data shows that readers spend approximately 44 minutes per issue and show a consistent average degree of interest. 

Top-10 reader per copy figures for spring 2014 are as follows:

English		RPC
Canada's History		23.7
The Hockey News Magazine		23.5
Outdoor Canada		21.1
People		20.5
Canadian Geographic		20.0
Canadian Gardening		15.9
Sportsnet Magazine1		13.7
Cottage Life		13.5
FASHION Magazine		12.2
BRITISH COLUMBIA MAGAZINE		12.0
French		RPC
Dernière Heure		16.4
Le Lundi		12.2
Québec Science		12.1
Summum		9.6
Yoopa		9.2
Clin d'oeil		9.0
La Semaine		9.0
7 Jours		8.9
Les Idées de ma Maison		8.9
Star Système		8.9

PMB data shows 5-year average Canadian magazine readership steady at a million

The Print Measurement Bureau reports that over the past 5 years, average readership of 90 printed magazines in Canada has held steady at or slightly above 1 million. And since 2009 the average number of readers-per-copy, now at about 5.3, has actually increased by 10%. 

Perhaps of most interest is that readers are maintaining a consistent level of time spent with an issue (41 minutes) and their degree of interest in what they read (6.9 on a 10-point scale). 

The data released shows that the top 10 titles in terms of total readership were:

Readership Fall 2013  ('000s)
Reader's Digest	5,025
Canadian Living	3,817
Canadian Geographic	3,650
what's cooking	3,635
People	3,140
Chatelaine	3,007
Cineplex Magazine	2,888
CAA Magazine	2,647
FOOD & DRINK	2,369
Canadian Health & Lifestyle	2,346

And in terms of RPC (a measurement of efficiency in delivering audience):

Readers-per-copy Fall 2013 Canada's History 25.4 The Hockey News  23.0 Outdoor Canada 22.1 Dernière Heure 21.3 People 21.2 Canadian Geographic 20.1 Canadian Gardening 16.3 Le Lundi 14.3 Cottage Life 14.0 FASHION Magazine 13.3

The full topline readership data is available at the PMB website. 

Print Measurement Bureau and NADbank boards agree to merge organizations and studies

To adjust to the changing realities of the research marketplace and to more efficiently gather and analyze both print media data and results of ongoing research into digital audiences, the Print Measurement Bureau (PMB) and NADbank have decided tentatively to merge their two studies and ultimately their two organizations. The result would be a combined print and digital study from one organization.

PMB has long been the accepted standard for readership and purchase information about Canadian magazines. NADbank has been primarily concerned with readership and purchase data for newspapers. A memorandum to members of PMB says that the boards of the two organizations have agreed -- subject to approval at special membership meetings -- to proceed with a proposal made by TNS, the research supplier to both. First data is expected to be available in the new, combined format in early 2015.

"The proposed new study builds on the strengths of the PMB and NADbank studies which are both internationally recognized as Gold Standard in their field," [said the memorandum] "The new study will contain all the information currently in the PMB and NADbank studies including data on the digital footprint of print vehicles. This will be achieved with no sacrifice of data quality, but with substantial savings through fieldwork efficiencies and the use of advanced data techniques such as congruent fusion and data calibration. 

"Further, the new combined study is designed as a platform to allow for broader research guidance for PMB members in areas such as media engagement, path-to-purchase data and linkages to external databases."

PMB results have held steady and healthy over past five years

The recent Print Measurement Bureau spring data reporting (from which last week we extracted the top magazines in terms of total readership and readers-per-copy) contains additional and particularly interesting historical results:

1. The average readership of over 100 titles measured in the nine, biannual studies since 2009 showed a steady average readership of around a million. For instance, comparing spring rounds:
• 2009 spring 1.02 million
• 2010 spring 1.03
• 2011 spring 0.98
• 2012 spring 0.98
• 2013 spring 1.04
2. Over the same five years, for those same magazines in terms of readers-per-copy, the numbers are higher than ever, with 2013 spring 10% higher than five years before. Here, again, is a comparison of the spring rounds:
• 2009 spring 4.9
• 2010 spring 4.8
• 2011 spring 4.9
• 2012 spring 4.9
• 2013 spring 5.4
3. In terms of engagement with magazines -- the data shows readers are spending as much time (in minutes per issue) with magazines as they did five years ago:
• 2009 spring 40
• 2010 spring 42
• 2011 spring 42
• 2012 spring 41
• 2013 spring 41

PMB chair Kirby Miller, who is also senior vice president and general manager at House & Home Media, said of these results:

"In a media world that's often looking for the next great panacea, it comes as no real surprise when we see the rock solid new PMB results. The metrics of average readership, readers-per-copy and engagement time with the medium are all looking very healthy."

PMB fall data shows steady state for magazine readership

The fall issue of the biannual Print Measurement Bureau (PMB) data shows topline readership for Canadian magazines that is pretty much steady state.
The top 10 English and French magazines in terms of total readership are:

English ('000s)
Reader's Digest	5,610
Canadian Living	3,806
People	3,476
Chatelaine	3,291
what's cooking	3,245
Canadian Geographic	3,235
Maclean's	2,437
Canadian House & Home	2,350
CAA Magazine	2,233
Canadian Gardening	2,148
French ('000s)
qu'est-ce qui mijote	1,185
Touring (Fre & Eng)	1,079
Coup de pouce	1,073
Châtelaine (Fr)	986
L'actualité	907
7 Jours	889
Sélection du Reader's Digest	850
ELLE QUÉBEC	783
Clin d'oeil	740
Les Idées de ma maison	681

The top 10 English and French in terms of readers-per-copy are:

English	RPC
Canadian Health	26.3
People	21.3
Outdoor Canada	19.9
The Hockey News Magazine	18.7
Canadian Gardening	16.2
Canadian Geographic	15.8
FASHION Magazine	12.0
Cottage Life	11.3
Canadian Business	11.1
ELLE CANADA	10.6
French
Dernière Heure	16.9
Le Lundi	13.0
Rénovation Bricolage	12.7
Star Système	11.8
7 Jours	10.5
Les Idées de ma maison	10.2
Star Inc.	10.2
Clin d'oeil	10.1
Tout Simplement Clodine	9.2
ELLE QUÉBEC	9.1

The entire topline dataset can be downloaded as an Excel spreadsheet.

Steady as it goes for the PMB readership of Canadian medical publications

Readership of the leading Canadian medical publications has remained steady, according to the 2011 Medical Media Study (MMS) released by the Print Measurement Bureau (PMB). The study was last done in 2009 and since then has been augmented with questions about online readership for 21 medical titles, including The Medical Post (Rogers), Canadian Medical Association Journal and Canadian Family Physician. 

According to a story in Marketing magazine, average readership of the top 5 English and top 3 French medical titles have remained relatively unchanged since 2009 at 16,341 and 5,876 respectively.

The MMS is based on interviews with 1,500 GPs and physicians in six specialties selected at random.

While the number of physicians using a print publication declined from 98% in 2009 to 97% this year, the MMS found that use of media publications’ websites increased from 43% in 2009 to 48% this year.

More than half of all survey respondents (58%) agreed that medical publications are a valuable source for information on prescription products – second only to medical meetings (62%) – while 70% agreed that they are a valuable source of information for patient treatment (again trailing medical meetings at 73%).

PMB spring data shows that younger magazine readership still strong

“It’s not as if there is a diminishing level of interest in the printed copy of magazines. The media world is changing rapidly, but the reality is people are still reading printed magazines.”

-- Steve Ferley, president of the Print Measurement Bureau, >commenting in Marketing magazine on the just-released spring results of the twice-a-year research report.

 The Marketing  story says that, 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.  It also found that young people are still readers, despite prevailing opinion; 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.

The spring data shows little signficant change in the overall readership with the readers-per-copy figure remaining at 5.1.

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.

Topline readership data from PMB

PMB and comScore combine to provide customers with a hybrid print/online audience database

The Print Measurement Bureau (PMB) will next Tuesday roll out a new, fused database that combines data from the biannual PMB study of print readership with comScore Canada's data about online usage.

The new combined product, will be available to both PMB members and comScore Canada clients, PMB said in a joint release.

Specifically it will provide PMB’s publication members with the ability to demonstrate greatly enhanced combined audience value across two of the major delivery platforms - print and online. Agency and advertiser members will also gain deeper insights into Canadian consumer behaviour, helping them to optimize multi-media planning against valuable target segments.

This first fused database will be based on PMB 2010 Spring data combined with comScore Canada information (average UV’s and page views over the first three months of 2010).

A comScore release quoted Bryan Segal, president of comScore Media Metrix Canada saying:

“The combination of online and offline audience data breaks entirely new ground in the Canadian media industry. This service will offer valuable consumer insights to publishers, agencies and advertisers that can be used in optimizing media buying and planning throughout the industry.”

Print Measurement Bureau topline results, spring 2010

[This post has been updated]The spring Print Measurement Bureau data has been published. Here are the top 10 Canadian magazines by total readership and by readers-per-copy (RPC):

Top 10 English magazines by readership ('000s)
Reader's Digest			6,360
Canadian Living			3,979
Chatelaine			3,562
People			3,542
what's cooking			3,541
Canadian Geographic			3,412
CAA Magazine			2,386
Maclean's			2,370
Canadian House & Home			2,363
Food & Drink			2,205
Canadian Health & Lifestyle			2,176
Top 10 English magazines by RPC
Canadian Health			33.7
The Hockey News Magazine			23.2
People			21.1
Outdoor Canada			16.3
Canadian Geographic			16.2
Canadian Business			12.8
FASHION Magazine			12.5
Canadian Gardening			12.4
Elle Canada			11.9
British Columbia Magazine			11.6
Top 10 French magazines by readership
qu'est-ce qui mijote			1,372
Coup de pouce			1,229
Touring (Fre & Eng)			1,113
Sélection du Reader's Digest			1,013
Châtelaine (Fr)			951
7 Jours			916
L'actualité			831
Elle Québec			764
Les Idées de ma maison			682
Clin d'oeil			660
Top 10 French magazines by RPC
Dernière Heure			16.6
Le Lundi			16.2
Rénovation Bricolage			15.5
Star Inc.			11.6
Star Système			10.9
Summum			10.4
7 Jours			9.7
Les Idées de ma maison			9.6
Tout Simplement Clodine			9.3
Clin d'oeil			8.9

[Update] "I think it is a good news report," PMB president Steve Ferley told Marketing magazine. "The readership data are stable and you can't run away from that."

The readers-per-copy average of 4.82 compares with 4.8 in the fall, while average time a respondent spent reading a magazine was 42.1 minutes, compared with 41.3 minutes in the fall of 2009 and 40 minutes in 2006.

"Readers per copy is flat and time spent reading might even be ticking upward slightly," said Ferley of the relative stability for magazine publishers. "In a world where everybody is concerned about fragmentation [of media] this is what is happening."

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.

PMB fall data released

The Print Measurement Bureau has released its fall 2009 data. We'll look at any significant changes or trends in a later post.

PMB fall biannual readership results due October 6

The Print Measurement Bureau (PMB) has announced that the results of its first-ever biannual release will be made on October 6. The twice-yearly release (spring & fall) is intended to give subscribers the most up to date and timely readership, product and brand data demographics, lifestyle and psychographic information.

"Reactions to the move to biannual release has been very favourable across all sectors of the media industry," Steve Ferley, president of PMB, told Media in Canada. "All sectors recognize the need for data suppliers to be as current and up-to-date as possible with their deliverables. This move is intended to add frequency to the reliability."

Magazine readership shows slight decline in 2009 spring PMB study

The just-released 2009 Print Measurement Bureau results, the first to be issued on a biannual (spring/fall) schedule, show a slight decline in readership of about 4%, based on data gathered in 2007 and 2008. English Canadian magazines were down an average of 3.2% in readership; French titles 6.2%.

Average magazine readership is 1.3 million (English) and 522,000 French and a steady average readers-per-copy figure of 7.1 (English) and 6.7 (French). Total magazine circulation tracked in the study* is 21.6 million (16.6 million English, 5 million French).

Among the largest in readership were, once again, Reader's Digest with 6.6 million, followed by Canadian Living with 3.95 million, though both magazines lost more than 300,000 readers from the comparable report in 2008. Tied for third spot are Canadian Geographic and Chatelaine at 3.8 million. Canadian Geographic actually grew by 299,000 readers year over year.

Among largest French titles were qu'est-ce qui mijote (1.4 million), coup de pouce (1.3 million), Sélection du Reader's Digest (1.06 million) and 7 jours (984,000).

Two of Canada's largest English shelter magazines lost readership ground: Canadian House & Home (down 162,000 readers) and Style at Home (down 114,000). Two of the larger French shelter magazines also lost readership: Les Idées de ma Maison (down 106,000) and Décoration Chez-Soi (down 76,000).

Several new magazines joined the study this year, including Canadian Health Magazine, LouLou, Our Canada, Parents Canada and the Health Journal in English and LouLou in French.

Among the English-language magazines that enjoyed significant year-over-year increases in overall 12+ readership were (all figures in '000s):

Gain	2009	2008	Increase
Canadian Geographic	3,768	3,469	299
Movie Entertainment	1,888	1,643	245
what's cooking	3,705	3,558	147
Tribute	1,539	1,399	140
FASHION Magazine	2,028	1,891	137
EnRoute	1,078	963	115
Elle Canada	1,699	1,595	104
Today's Parent	1,866	1,802	64
Canadian Business	1,031	985	46
NOW	321	298	23
Vancouver Magazine	313	291	22

Among those English-language titles that saw a significant decrease in readership were:

Loss	2009	2008	Decrease
Style at Home	1,602	1,716	(114)
Starweek	992	1,114	(122)
Harrowsmith Country Life	772	932	(160)
Canadian House & Home	2,361	2,523	(162)
Homemakers	1,608	1,820	(212)
Canadian Gardening	1,980	2,195	(215)
Reader's Digest	6,564	6,882	(318)
Canadian Living	3,959	4,308	(349)

Among French-language titles that had significant increases in readership:

Gain	2009	2008	Increase
Touring (Fre & Eng)	1,171	1,078	93
qu'est-ce qui mijote	1,392	1,317	75
Madame	293	262	31
Star Système	343	312	31
Dernière Heure	297	279	18
Décormag	677	660	17
Summum	247	232	15

Among French magazines with significant decreases in readership:

Loss	2009	2008	Decrease
Les Affaires	271	345	(74)
Québec Science	262	338	(76)
Décoration Chez-Soi	744	822	(78)
Le Magazine Enfants Québec	223	304	(81)
La Semaine	559	643	(84)
Châtelaine (Fr)	895	985	(90)
Les Idées de ma Maison	746	852	(106)
TV 7 Jours/TV Hebdo	719	837	(118)
7 Jours	984	1,121	(137)
Primeurs	380	526	(146)

*PMB also includes major daily newspapers; for this post, only magazines were tabulated.