Answering the industry’s call for up to date information, today PMB released its first fall numbers. “PMB has always been respected for the reliability of its data,” said Fred Auchterlonie, senior VP at PHD Canada and the current PMB chairman in a press release. “Biannual release of the entire database maintains that level of quality and also moves us forward. It keeps PMB in tune with a media landscape which expects greater frequency of audience data.”

The interview process for the fall results took place over the normal span of 24 months, with the final interviews taking place in mid-2009.

The average readership of all magazines reported in the Fall 2009 study was marginally higher than in PMB 2009 Spring—1.05 million readers compared with 1.03 million. Within that figure, the average readership of the sixty English language publications measured was also slightly higher—1.39 million, compared with 1.36 million in the Spring.

Readers-per-copy analysis shows Canadian magazines maintaining their recent levels. The overall level in the Fall study (4.8 readers-per-copy) was consistent compared with Spring (4.9).

The PMB study also provides qualitative information on Canadians’ reading habits. The evidence from PMB 2009 Fall is that print readership continues to be stable in terms of both time spent reading magazines and the degree of interest in Canadian titles.

	PMB 2005	PMB 2007	PMB 2009 Fall
Average time spent reading (minutes)	40.4	40.9	41.3
Average degree of interest (1-10 scale)	6.7	6.7	6.8

Stay with Masthead for additional analysis of the PMB 2009 Fall report.