Canada and the Future of Publishing

March 26th, 2009

Having grown up in Canada a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen I’ve always marveled at the similarities and differences between the two countries. Often Canada seems to be playing catch-up to U.S. innovations. Other times it appears to be ahead of the U.S., at least in societal matters, if not necessarily economic or technological issues.

What intrigues and bemuses me today is this report from the Canadian Marketing magazine to the tune of:

More than three quarters of Canadians, 77%, read a printed or online version of a daily newspaper in a typical week, according to the latest readership data from Toronto’s Newspaper Audience Databank (NADbank). The total readership remains essentially unchanged from the 2007 study.

The 2008 readership study found that 13.7 million Canadians 18+ read a print edition of a daily paper each week, although online readership is gaining momentum…The Internet is not supplanting print editions however, with only 4% of Canadians reading newspapers exclusively online.

Is Canada a truly different country than the U.S., or is it just waiting for the axe to fall?