The print readership of Toronto’s newspapers is plunging, according to the survey information released by the Newspaper Audience Databank (NADbank). It’s a story that the newspapers are having a hard time telling as they bury these print readership numbers in various ways. The Toronto Star for example puts the lead on its continued status as the most read newspaper across the Toronto area. And that’s fine but the collapsing print readership numbers are a story that is far more important. The current NADbank survey for example shows the Star’s print readership has fallen 13.8 percent across the region. By any measure it is a staggering drop. As a business indicator for the newspaper it can hardly be over-stated. Similar drops are shown for the other daily papers. The Globe and Mail print readership has dropped 13.8 per cent, the Toronto Sun, 10.8 percent and the National Post, 17.6 per cent. This is a national trend it seems as 44 of the 55 daily newspapers surveyed across Canada showed similar levels of declines. The drop has been exaggerated in the NADbank phone survey by the inclusion of homes that have only a cell. Typically, subscribers to the print edition of a newspaper have a land line in the home.
