INTERPUBLIC AGENCIES CONDUCT TORONTO NEWSPAPER SURVEY
By Adnews Staff
M2 Universal, Ammirati Puris, Initiative Media of Toronto and Marketel/M2 Universal of Montreal are among a group of media agencies of the Interpublic Group of Companies that commissioned a survey of Toronto newspapers. The survey was conducted to determine readership of Toronto's new free transit dailies, Metro, GTA Today and FYI Toronto. The survey also assessed the impact the three transit newspapers were having on Toronto's paid dailies including the National Post, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and Toronto Sun. Over 1,000 adults (18 years of age and older) were surveyed during December via telephone interviews, following the same methodology NADbank uses for its annual readership studies. Key highlights of the results include: 20% of Toronto adults reporting they read at least one the city's transit papers on the average weekday and 8% read only a transit paper and not any of the four paid daily newspapers. The group of agencies said it commissioned the study now because industry readership research would not available until later this year. NADbank will release its 2001 Study in September including data on Toronto's new transit newspapers. Results of the Interpublic group's survey are being distributed to Interpublic clients only. Dow said even though the agencies commissioned their own research, they will continue to support NADbank's marketing research. "To wait for the September release of NADbank readership data was not an option so we took the highly unusual step of conducting our own research," he said.