TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Sept. 28, 2011) - The Toronto Star has boosted its dominance as the most-read newspaper in the Greater Toronto Area, according to the latest newspaper readership study released today by the Newspaper Audience Databank (NADbank).
The NADbank survey, which covered the period from the fall of 2010 to the spring of 2011, also indicated that thestar.com, already the area's most-visited of all Toronto newspaper websites, enjoyed another year of solid readership gains.
The study showed the Star increased its total print and online readership within the Greater Toronto Area by 1.0 per cent, with a total weekly readership of 2.38 million adults. It also indicated the Star widened the gap between its nearest print competitor, Metro Toronto, by 62,000 readers a day.
"We are pleased with these solid results," said John Cruickshank, Publisher of the Toronto Star. "They clearly show that year after year both the Star and thestar.com are producing timely and useful news and information that readers want and need.
"Also, we have made substantial investments in both the newspaper and the website that are being reflected in the positive feedback we are receiving from both our readers and advertisers, who have made us the overwhelming leader when it comes to news and information in the GTA," he added.
Cruickshank also noted that despite some wide bounces in some of the year-over-year results, the NADbank study indicates that readership of all newspapers in the Greater Toronto Area has remained relatively steady on a multi-year basis.
In the NADbank Fall2010/Spring2011 readership survey period, the weekday Star was read by an average of 966,000 adult readers a day in the GTA. This is a slight increase of 0.3 per cent over the same period a year earlier.
On Saturday, the Star reached 1.19 million readers. This was a drop of 2.2 per cent from a year earlier. On Sunday, the Star enjoyed a 12.1 per cent jump in readership, reaching 797,000 readers. According to the survey, the cumulative 7-day readership of the Star was up 0.9 per cent to 2.03 million readers.
The NADbank results also showed that thestar.com grew at a rate of 1.4 per cent between the Fall2008/Spring2009 readership survey period and the same period a year earlier. With 751,000 visitors a week, thestar.com is by far the most popular newspaper website for readers in the Greater Toronto Area.
Together, the Star's print and online reach increased by 1.0 per cent, pushing the combined weekly readership to 2.34 million, which is 51.2 per cent of the Greater Toronto Area adult audience, a figure that is more than twice as large as the Star's closest competitor.
About the Toronto Star and thestar.com
The Toronto Star, founded in 1892, is read in print and online (thestar.com) by 3.0 million readers. The Toronto Star is a division of Star Media Group, which includes Toronto.com, Torstar Syndication Services, The Grid, Sway and The Canadian Immigrant. Star Media Group also includes the jointly owned Metro free daily newspapers in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Winnipeg and London, Ontario, and the Chinese language newspaper Sing Tao. Star Media Group is a division of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, which is a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation.
Contact Information:
Bob Hepburn
Director, Community Relations and Communications
(416) 869-4947
bhepburn@thestar.ca