Winnipeg Free Press bucks trend circulation up

The Winnipeg Free Press saw its paid circulation grow in the six months ending Sept. 30.

The Free Press's paid circulation climbed by 4.56 per cent on Sundays, edged up 0.42 per cent on Saturdays and rose an average of 1.28 per cent on weekdays.

Traffic on the Free Press website has increased substantially in recent months. In October, there were 1.3 million unique visits and 5.6 million page views to the Free Press's online sites, compared with 1.1 million visits and 5 million page views in September and 690,000 visits and 3.5 million page views last December.

Paid circulation for most major Canadian daily newspapers was either down or relatively flat in the six months ending Sept. 30.

The Toronto Star's weekday circulation fell to 430,931 from 446,492 in the same period the year before. The Star's Saturday circulation dropped to 609,163 from 635,355.

The Globe and Mail's Saturday circulation was 406,401 (415,172 in 2006), while its weekday number was 329,099 (330,144).

The National Post's Saturday circulation was pegged at 214,022 (228,899), while its weekday average was 201,376 (209,210).

A red-hot economy didn't translate into higher readership figures for Alberta's two largest newspapers.
The Calgary Herald saw its Saturday circulation fall to 117,513 from 125,578, its Sunday readership drop to 110,737 from 116,091 and its weekday numbers drop to 115,612 from 119,689. At the Edmonton Journal, Saturday paid circulation fell to 126,551 from 133,395, Sunday circulation dropped to 118,438 from 123,993 and weekday readership fell to 119,996 from 124,774.


CIRCULATION CHANGES

Average weekday newspaper circulation for the six months ending Sept.
30, 2007:

Winnipeg Free Press up 1.28% Winnipeg
Calgary Herald down .41%
Edmonton Journal down 3.83%
Vancouver Sun down 0.13%
Ottawa Citizen down 2.53%
Hamilton Spectator up 0.41%
Globe and Mail down 0.32%
National Post down 3.74%
Toronto Star down 3.49%

Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations

Gordon Preece
Director, Region 9, Western Canada