Read All Aboot It: Canadians Still Like Print Newspapers

A new survey of Canadian adults in 53 media markets indicates continuing popularity for print newspapers north of the border, with a surprisingly low number of survey respondents only reading content online.

The survey covered populations in markets served by a total of 81 Canadian daily newspapers (as well as 60 community newspapers in 33 of these markets), representing 72% of the total Canadian population.

Overall, the new readership survey from NADbank found that 14.7 million Canadian adults, or 78% of the total population, read a print or online edition of their daily newspaper at least once a week. However, the print edition is still far more popular among adult readers in general, with 73% reading the print edition once a week versus just 22% for the online edition. Even more remarkable, a mere 4% of Canadian adults only read newspapers online.

More specifically, 47% of Canadian adults read a printed daily newspaper on an average weekday, 44% read the Saturday edition, and 23% read the Sunday edition.

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In terms of content categories, 73% of readers went to daily newspapers for local content. The survey found that readership rates for local daily newspapers are higher in smaller markets.

The Canadian newspaper readership data provides an interesting contrast to some recent surveys of American adults' reading habits.

Earlier this month, a survey of 1,040 people by AARP found that just 29% of adults read a print newspaper every day -- a figure that can be compared to the "average weekday" figure of 44% for Canadian adults -- even though these categories aren't defined in exactly the same way. Furthermore, the AARP survey found that 35% of American adults don't read a daily newspaper at all, compared to just 23% of Canadians.

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