We’ve talked about the dying print business before. While some papers have simply stopped printing, others are considering printing less than 7 days a week and others are running front-page ads for the first time ever. Heck, even Buffalo Rising is now entirely online.
With that as backdrop, Scarborough Research just released it’s survey of newspaper penetration. Scarborough measures the reach of major newspapers – and their websites – in the largest 81 markets. Our hometown Buffalo News had the 5th highest weekly print audience penetration rate at 66%. Keep in mind, Scarborough defines the ‘print audience’ as the percentage of adults in the metro area who read or looked into the paper during the past 5 days or Sunday. In other words, 66% of WNY adults have read or glanced through the Buffalo News in the past week.
Interestingly, while the News ranks 5th for print penetration, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle ranks 1st with an astonishing 81% of Rochester area adults reading the paper in the past week. As the Syracuse Post-Standard ranks 4th, you can tell that greater upstate New York really loves the print media.
The last Scarborough report had the Buffalo News’ online penetration (buffalonews.com + buffalo.com) at 13%. They use the same methodology for the online penetration calculation, meaning 13% of WNY adults have read or glanced at either of those two websites in the past week. Rochester’s website had a slightly higher reach at 14% while Syracuse.com came in at 15%.
Does it say something about the entire region that we continue to cling to the local print media so much more than other regions? Just asking.