Weight, sex, work figure in Chatelaine's survey

52 per cent of women feel they need to lose at least 20 pounds; about the same (51%) of women who compare their bodies to the bodies of women they know. These, among many other revelations, are included in the report on Chatelaine's This is 40ish survey. 

The 2nd annual survey was conducted online with 1,029 women between 35 and 45 in Canada and asked some fairly nosy questions about sex and love, work and home, body and health and everything from pimples to cheating. Among some other answers the survey found:

• 49% of the respondents are married and 56% working full time
• 42% live in a city, 36% in the suburbs
• 41% suspect other couples have more sex than they do
• 60% of partnered (married, common law) fantazsize about being single again
• 25% say they've cheated on a partner (76% kept the information to themselves)
• 54% of women fantasize about quitting their jobs at least once a month
• 73% say they do the majority of cleaning
• 44% occasionally or often think about whether other couples are happier than they are

First full year of Vividata research shows magazine readership steady; more digital reading

[This post has been updated. (see below)]

The results have been released of the first full-year study of Canadian consumer magazine and newspaper readership by Vividata and it demonstrates, not surprisingly, that magazine readership remains strong, with 70% of Canadian adults  reading magazines, comparable to levels of five years ago.  And the trend to reading on digital devices continues to grow.  Never before measured is that almost half of magazine readers are now reading on a digital device. 

The research organization was founded in 2014 as an amalgamation of NADbank and the Print Measurement Bureau (PMB). The study results were based on the first full year of fieldwork of the combined organization, looking at 117 publications (73 magazines, 44 newspapers) in  a survey of 38,000 consumers across Canada from January to December 2015. The amalgamation was, at least in part, in order to allow measurement of blended and unduplicated readership results for both print and digital.

Among the other findings are that 

• 7 out of 10 digital readers are now reading on a a mobile device at least part of the time.
• A surprising 60% of millennials (18-34) read magazines; 16% only on a digital device; 37% only in print; almost half, both
• Totally not surprising is that (adults 50+) remain heavy readers of magazines and newspapers

The following are the current top 10 in English and French in total net print and digital readership in thousands:

Top 10 English ('000s)

Reader's Digest	4492
Cineplex magazine	4184
Canadian Living	3834
People	3487
Canadian Geographic	3439
Chatelaine	3200
CAA Magazine	3047
Maclean's	2193
FOOD & DRINK	2144
Can. House & Home	1886

Top 10 French ('000s)
[This post has been updated:  Earlier version had incorrect sort for top 10 French titles. Our apologies.]

RICARDO Magazine	1428
Coup de pouce	1234
L'actualite	851
Touring (French & English)	791
Bel Age	745
Chatelaine (Fr)	737
Selections du Reader's Digest	704
Le Magazine Cineplex	631
Les idees de ma maison	621
Vero magazine (new)	582

Vividata overview of results and methodology for both magazines and newspapers.

Some FLARE readers outraged about Ghomeshi style commentary

[This post has been updated] Readers of FLARE magazine -- or at least those who make online comments -- are seriously pissed that the magazine published an online commentary "decoding" the style choices involved in Jian Ghomeshi's courtroom appearance this week on sexual assault charges. The post, by Flannery Dean, talked about such matters as tie/no-tie, Ghomeshi's haircut and clean-shaven appearance and enlisted a defense attorney and an image consultant in the conversation. Here are some of the 31 comments:

"Shame on you. This is disgusting. What a callous attempt at news jacking. If you had any empathy for the several women who were ATTACKED by this PREDATOR you would yank this immediately and issue an apology."

"Your target demographic is women- you write about fashion, beauty and style, we get that; but his targets were also women. Having more respect for your target demographic would have been the smarter move when considering this article. Make considerate editorial choices, Flare. Don’t insult your people!"

"Is this for real? Your magazine has become a joke if so. Disgusting. I will never be picking up another issue again…nor visiting your site. I hope you guys go bankrupt. With this, you should be well on your way."

"Though I’m sure Flare’s enjoying its moment of attention, take this down already. Then fire whoever thought this was okay."

[Update: FLARE put an apology on line Friday afternoon (on Twitter and its website) by managing editor Maureen Halushak saying, in part that original headline, seen above, "misconstrued [the story's] intention, which was to discuss the strategy behind Ghomeshi's choice in apparel. This article was in no way intended to be seen as a light-hearted fashion commentary."

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

Cosmo pitch meeting livestreamed so readers can watch how it's done

That's kind of cool, or alarming, or both. Cosmopolitan.com, the website of the magazine, livestreamed an hour-long story meeting yesterday. 

According to a story in the New York Observer

Broadcasting a pitch meeting might be most journalist’s idea of Truman Show-like hell, but Cosmopolitan.com livestreamed their pitch meeting this afternoon because it knows how to reach its readership.

The story went on 

Sitting in front of computers, backlit by the Cosmopolitan logo and a TV playing a continuous yule log overlaid with periodic images of cup cakes and animals in Santa hats, the staffers started by throwing out some edgier topics (as per online editor Amy Odell’s request) like BDSM, latex fetishes and 69ing. The latter sex act reminded one staffer of a Sex and the City episode. Actually, Sex and the City came up more than once.

A shirtless, male staffer entered the room to propose a new feature called “Cooking With A Hottie” where the bare-chested fellow cooked food with a cute girl, a stunt that we are sure had nothing to do with the broadcast. That pitch quickly devolved into a discussion of quinoa, everyone’s favorite grain-like protein, “Cookie Butter” (apparently mashed up cookie crumbs and butter) and the differences between egg pizza, frittatas and quiche. The shirtless male staffer remained shirtless.

Readers were encouraged to tweet suggestions and make comments.  

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. 

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.

Publication engagement said to be much higher on an app than on a website

Word from Britain is that readers spend more time reading a publication using apps on a tablet than on the publication's own website. A story from paidContent.org  about research by Tiger Spike says that tablet users spend an average of 30 to 34 minutes on the sites it has developed for clients such as the Telegraph Media Group, The Economist, the Australian and the Mail Online. It also found that page views are five times the average for publications consumed on the web.

At a recent City University panel discussion, News International’s chief marketer Katie Vanneck-Smith said, since introducing charges, The Times readers are “three times more engaged in terms of propensity to comment, time spent on website, they click more to advertisers”. This is likely because fleeting users, who arrived on single pages via search engines, have been turfed out. Previous research shows some tablet owners have shifted their reading of articles from the web and daytime to the evening and tablet.

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

Dogeared and in the doghouse: hospital bans waiting room mags as health hazard

I guess it had to come. Women's College Hospital in Toronto is banning waiting room magazines, saying it is to prevent the spread of germs and viruses. Nowhere was it evident in the reporting that this is a real problem, just that old copies of Reader's Digest and Maclean's might be a conduit for germs passing from hand to hand. People are allowed to bring their own books and magazines -- and they better because  reading matter won't be supplied. According to a report on CBC.ca

Posters inside the hospital say the decision was made because "reading material spreads viruses and infections." Michael Gardam, director of infection prevention and control for Toronto's University Health Network, says getting rid of magazines makes sense.

"If you've got somebody who's in isolation because they've got C. difficile or some other super bug, and they're reading that magazine, you don't really want to put that back on the rack for another person."

The nature of such edicts is that a) the practice will spread like, well, like a virus and pretty soon the "public place" copy will be an endangered species and b) no matter what the industry says or does -- even if it were able to demonstrate that ink on glossy paper is a potent antiseptic and germicide -- will it make any difference. Plus, I predict, somehow the public will misinterpret this as a ban on reading in hospitals, as ridiculous as that may seem.
Many of Canada's best known magazines rely on public place copies to drive up audience numbers.

Prairie Dog magazine encourages and rewards readers who hunt down typos

{This post has been updated]Here's a nifty idea: reward your readers for spotting typos, as does Prairie Dog, the Regina arts, news and entertainment magazine. The reader chosen wins $10 and a T-shirt. 

Now, some might say it would be better to proofread before publishing, but most magaziners out there will admit that, despite doing that, mistakes creep in. And it's a good promotional idea to find a humorous way to build reader involvement, a way like Typo Weiner. 

[UPDATE: Taddle Creek magazine points out that last May the magazine started rewarding error-spotters a two year subscription to the magazine.] 

Reader loyalty clubs: when great content is not considered enough

There was a time (or was there?) when magazines expected to generate reader loyalty by the quality of their content.That, apparently,is not enough. According to a story in Folio:, the U.S. division of Hachette Filipacchi is considering following the lead of its UK counterpart in developing "reader loyalty clubs" to increase audiences and revenue.

"As we think about our business model and our role in the future, we see it migrating from just a media company to be a media and servicing company to our consumers'" says HFMUS COO Phillippe Guelton. We want to identify their interests and their needs and to better answer those needs beyond the magazine or Web site or even a mobile application.”

Subscribers would be rewarded with access to film tickets, discounted products and preferred access. This is already done in Canada by such publishers as the Globe and Mail which offers front of the line access to shows and performances.

Many such arrangements are done in collaboration with retailers, promoters and manufacturers and it is hard to see how this won't further blur the line between content and promotion. Where once mainstream magazines were in the business of renting reader access to advertisers, now the necessity in the minds of some big brains in the business is to sell products and differentiate between readers who buy the deal and those who buy the stories. (Of course it was similar big brains who thought it was a good idea to move Jay Leno to 10 p.m.).

I'd be interested to hear about this (can I call it a trend?) from magazine people who like the idea and perhaps already do something similar, and (of course) from those who don't like it. Click on the word "comments" below.

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."

Magazines hurting for ads but research shows their audiences are UP

Financial sector advertisers may be in meltdown and ad pages may be down, but according to first half figures from Mediamark Research and Intelligence (MRI), U.S. consumer magazine audiences are up. That's right. Up.

According to a story in MediaDaily News, a comparison of MRI data for 95 leading consumer magazines shows that 74% increased their audience between spring 2007 and spring 2008, for a total increase of 4.3%. The remaining 25 titles were flat or experienced only moderate drops.

U.S. mag industry to move to total readership measurement

The Magazine Publishers of America announced Monday that, in cooperation with McKinsey and Company, it proposes to launch a new system of magazine measurement based on total readership rather than circulation.

The proposed system could transform the generally accepted metrics for larger U.S. magazines. Advertisers would be able to get issue-specific data on key demographics, individual ad recall and self-reported consumer action and purchasing intent. The goal would be to have such data available within three months for monthlies and two months for weeklies.

Initially the new measurement would apply to the 200 largest magzines, but the MPA said in a press release that it was exploring a variety of methods to shorten up the time to report and to extend the measurement to more titles. Nina Link, the President and CEO of MPA said:

There is clearly a desire for a magazine measurement system that is comparable to other media, as well as more timely and accountable to advertising results.

Jack Kliger, the President and CEO of Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., who, with many others in the industry, had been campaigning for readership, not distribution, to become the currency of the magazine business, said:

Advertising effectiveness measurement in other media is derived from an audience, viewership or readership metric, and it is therefore important that magazine measurement is comparable to other media, particularly as multi-platform packages gain traction.

Using readership metrics is a better model, not only for advertisers but for our magazines’ relationship with their readers. This initiative will help our consumer marketers and editors better understand readers’ needs and behavior through improved measurement tools and direct marketing materials, which will become even more targeted to what readers want.

In Canada, most large magazines already sell principally on readership as measured by the Print Measurement Bureau, although only on an annualized basis. There will probably be pressure now from agencies for at least the larger Canadian titles to provide more frequent and timely audience metrics.

U.S. agencies and advertisers stick to what they know: circulation, not readership

Since this magazine business is all about audience (identifying them, attracting them, signing them up, keeping them and then renting access to them), there has always been some discussion about selling on total audience rather than on guaranteed circulation. Most Canadian consumer magazines sell on readership most of the time. In the U.S., magazines have traditionally relied on a paid rate base, a guaranteed number of copies for which end users have paid something.

A year ago, Time magazine decided to test the waters by offering advertisers the ability to buy based on guaranteed total readership of 19.5 million, as measured by MRI, or against a 19 percent smaller rate base of 3.25 million copies.

Though Time is being coy about the results, a story in Mediaweek says that the magazine fell far short of its goal of having 20 to 30 per cent of clients buy on the basis of eyeballs (total audience). All Ed McCarrick, president and worldwide publisher of Time Group, said was “a few” are buying on audience but would not give specifics, saying he doesn’t discuss clients.

Asked why more advertisers haven’t warmed to the idea, he said, “I really don’t know—I think the newness of it and the approach. They approach magazines with a very conventional way of looking at them.”

Some media buying agencies said none of their clients had signed up for the audience deal and cited the nature of MRI data, which are reader-reported, while others said their clients had other priorities.

“It’s not hot on the docket,” said Ginger Taylor White, group account director, print at Carat. Barry Lowenthal, president, The Media Kitchen, saw the offer as a way to shift the conversation away from circulation. “There are a lot of magazines that have a better audience story than circulation story,” he said.

Want chips with that? RFID transponders tested for magazine readership

Mediamark Research and Intelligence, a well-known U.S. magazine audience measurement firm is partnering with DJG Marketing's Waiting Room Subscription Services to put radio frequency identification (RFID) chips in magazines in waiting rooms to determine just how many customers actually read them, according to a story MediaDaily News.

It marks the first external test of the small transponders. The goal is to find it the chips can accurately measure not only the time spent reading, but the exposure of a reader to specific pages. It's hoped that these results would be better and more reliable than self-recorded diaries kept by readers.

The new measurement initiative may help resolve a controversial issue in magazine ad sales: Should free or discounted copies distributed in public places count as quality circulation? Often dismissed as "junk circ" used to inflate publishers' figures, proponents argue that these magazines have value that can be measured in terms of reach and frequency, akin to booming place-based video media.

Earlier research by Time Inc. and Mediaedge:cia tracked readership of six different magazines in a sample population of about 5,000 people, focusing on Entertainment Weekly, In Style, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Parenting and People.

It found that over 80% of waiting-room readers act on ad or editorial content they see in magazines there. The Internet The study also found 85% said they "didn't mind waiting if magazines were available," while 97% thought "waiting rooms should provide things to read while you wait."