NADbank: newspaper circulation up for all dailies

The Globe reported yesterday (B2) that it’s readership was up significantly. After piercing through the self-congratulatory rhetoric, it turns out every major daily, even the lowly Suns, are up, as well as the National Post. The numbers:

Average weekday readership grew by 10.8 per cent to 709,000 in seven largest English language markets

National Post showed a 27.4 per cent increase to 361,500

On line readership at Globe (102. per cent, combined print and net) and Post (8 per cent) increased.

In vital Toronto market, Star inched ahead 0.3 per cent, Sun by 5.4 per cent, Globe by 16.9 per cent and Post 51.4 per cent! (is it possible that PostMedia’s strategy is working?) Final comment: Star is most boring newspaper in Canada; suits its suburban readers nicely. The new Globe is actually a great improvement; forget about keeping up with net and electronic media; concentrate more on opinion, backgrounders and features.

Governments still avoiding FOI requests: study

The guru of Freedom of Information requests, Prof. Fred Vallance Jones of King’s College, sicced his journalism students on three levels of government,  for the third year in a row, and found them mostly noncompliant. Having been on the receiving end of FOI requests in my career, I will point out that some of them I’ve seen have been strange to the point of incomprehensible; there’s some responsibility to be shared by the requestor to make a clean, comprehensible request.

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Sep 27, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — A total refusal to release contracts in Winnipeg, Quebec’s denial of basic accountability information about top officials’ spending, passenger manifests for Ontario’s executive aircraft on which names deleted after six months and the federal government’s stubborn refusal to release data in a useful form are just some of the findings of the Newspapers Canada sixth annual National Freedom of Information Audit, which tests the openness of governments across the country.

DND losing media officers due to political micromanaging

The Ottawa Citizen has obtained a report from DND citing high turnover in its public affairs officers, resulting in more junior officers having to assume senior duties, with reduced effectiveness. If so, it’s a shame. Through personal experience I’m met a few of the Army public affairs officers three years ago, and they were doing an extremely good job in an extremely difficult situation: maintaining a good reputation for the army in the midst of a complex, unpopular war.

 

Kevin Carle, a former senior public affairs officer, said he isn’t surprised by the exodus and reports of poor morale. “With this particular government there is micromanagement,” said Carle, who retired as a navy captain in 2008. “It is absolute control of information so public affairs officers are really frustrated.”

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/facing+exodus+public+affairs+staff+Report/5454509/story.html#ixzz1Yzrbkmrn

Sept. 25 2011

Canadian magazines recover from tough 2009

Masthead reports that most Canadian magazines recovered from their 2008–9 doldrums, with most showing an increase in revenue in 2010. The magazine business is still growing strong, but Masthead recognizes it is still only looking at print revenue, and does not include online revenue. Full report at Masthead.