Toronto Star Readership Rises in New Survey

Latest NADbank results show Star increases print and online leadership in Greater Toronto Area


TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Sept. 26, 2012) - The Toronto Star has increased its leadership as the most-read newspaper and the most-visited newspaper website 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 2011 to the spring of 2012, revealed that weekday readership of the Star grew by 4.1 per cent year-over-year and its weekly online readership rose by 14.5 per cent, increases that widened the readership gap in the GTA between the Star and its nearest competitors.

The Star and Metro Toronto, the free paper owned by Star Media Group, were the only newspapers to record increases in their weekday readership in the Greater Toronto Area.

The Star is read by more than 1 million adults every weekday in the GTA and thestar.com by nearly 860,000 adults every week, according to NADbank.

The survey also shows the combined print and online readership of the Star in the GTA rose 0.8 per cent in the past year to 2.3 million, which is more than twice that of the Toronto Sun and the Globe and Mail.

"These results are extremely encouraging," said John Cruickshank, Publisher of the Toronto Star and President of Star Media Group. "Clearly, people throughout the Greater Toronto Area want to read the news and information that we produce every day, both in print and online.

"The findings are also a reflection of the importance that our readers place on the service that the Star provides to the community through our investigative journalism, our extensive city news coverage and our commitment to worthy charitable programs across the region."

The new NADbank survey shows the weekday Star is read by an average of 1,005,300 adult readers a day in the GTA. On Saturday, the Star reaches 1.18 million readers, which is virtually unchanged from the previous survey. On Sunday the Star is read by 737,700 adults.

The second-most read newspaper in the GTA is Metro Toronto. Average weekday readership of Metro rose 2.2 per cent to 506,600 adults.

"We have made major investments in our newspaper, our website and our digital offerings in recent years that are designed to benefit both our readers and our advertisers," Cruickshank said. "We will continue to look for new and innovative ways to provide news and information that meet the needs both of our readers and our advertisers."

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 city magazine and The Canadian Immigrant. Star Media Group also includes the majority-owned Metro free daily newspapers in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, London, Regina, Saskatoon and Halifax, and the jointly-owned Chinese language daily newspaper Sing Tao. Star Media Group is a division of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, which is a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation.

Contact Information:

Toronto Star
Bob Hepburn
Director, Community Relations and Communications
(416) 869-4947
bhepburn@thestar.ca