Ah metrics, I just can’t quit you.
Today’s data point comes from The Media Audit, put out by Houston-based International Demographics. It provides an answer to the question, “Besides the Star Tribune, which publication has the most print readers in the Twin Cities?”
The Pioneer Press? Nope. City Pages? Nuh-uh.
Are there some caveats here? Oh, yes, but we’ll get to those after the rankings. Of the 2.46 million Twin Citians aged 18 or older, here’s how many read each publication in September-October 2010:
1. Star Tribune Sunday: 1.185 million
2. Star Tribune weekday: 767,695
3. Mpls.St.Paul: 615,253
4. Pioneer Press Sunday: 585,518
5. Pioneer Press weekday: 570,224
6. City Pages: 440,365
7. Sun newspapers: 436,927
8. Minnesota Monthly: 349,323
9. The Onion: 217,433
10. Midwest Home: 206,980
11. TPT Program Guide: 205,572
12. Save on Everything: 164,126
13. Twin Cities Business: 126,887
14. Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal: 120,125
15. Vita.mn: 114,837
16. Metro Magazine: 106,371
17. Minnesota Business Magazine: 77,929
18. Southwest Journal: 75,859
19. Lavender Magazine: 68,884
20. Minnesota Parent: 68,717
I simply wouldn’t have guessed that every couple of months, a quarter of Twin Cities adults at least glance at a glossy monthly with an upscale, older, strongly female readership. MSP says that about a quarter of its readers — 146,055 to be specific — have household incomes over $100,000 and the magazine hits nearly a third of the 500,000 people with $100K-plus incomes.
I’m just happy to know we have half a million people here making more than $100,000, and hope they don’t all want plastic surgery and restaurant reservations at the same time.
As regular Braublog readers know, data is made for slicing and disputing. One note: while newspapers themselves will break out Sunday and weekday data for advertisers, if you combined the two PiPress components, the newspaper might well be number two.
A PiPress spokeswoman notes they are not a Media Audit client (Mpls.St.Paul is), adding, “We rely on Scarborough Research — the most widely used source among media and agencies nationwide — for all print measurements. According to Scarborough, the Pioneer Press’ monthly reach is 66 percent of East Metro adults. The reach of an average issue of Mpls./St. Paul magazine in the East Metro area is 5 percent. Apples-to-apples comparisons are difficult when comparing a daily newspaper with a monthly magazine.”
In web terms, the Media Audit stat measures “unique visitors,” but not “page views,” “time spent on site,” or advertiser impressions. Although I don’t have the data, you’d have to believe a daily newspaper or an alt-weekly would have more opportunities per reader to drive a message home. Magazines respond with yummy color and design for their once-a-month opportunity.
As for the rest of the list, it’s interesting to see the Sun suburban-paper chain rank high, and Greenspring Media’s Midwest Home crack the top 10 as a specialty publication. (Greenspring also publishes Minnesota Monthly.) TPT’s program guide is more read than I would have expected. As for Save on Everything, it should be obvious: it’s a shopper.
