2021 Alberta Media Usage Study: How Geography Impacts Media Access, Usage and Engagement
Results applicable to 5 different community types across Alberta
- Are people more likely to buy from companies who invest in locally-owned media platforms?
- What impact does the urban/rural internet divide have on online activities?
- How is the transition to online media consumption really happening?
The study was conducted by random sample with Adults 18+ living in exclusively in communities of less than 100,000 population in Alberta. The survey was administered using a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI). The study has a margin of error of +/- 3.1% at the 95% confidence level with 1005 total interviews.
Study Highlights
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78% of respondents indicated that they access their community newspaper in some form each week. An engagement level that has remained constant since the first study of community newspaper readership was done in 2005. |
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Nearly 3/4’s of respondents engage with either the PRINT version of the newspaper or the digital replica of the PRINT version via e-Reader. |
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The urban/rural internet divide is real with the quality of internet connection affecting virtually every type of online activity. |
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Ads in newspapers = Useful. Ads on websites = Boring. |
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'Supporting Local' extends to supporting companies that support local. Respondents pledge to support advertisers that invest budgets in local media. |
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STUDY RESULTS BY COMMUNITY SIZE
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 Medium Cities (50-100K)
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 Smalls Cities
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 Small Towns
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 Farms
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ABOUT THE SUPPLIER
Totum Research is Canada's leading research firm specializing in the media. Since 1985, Totum has produced reliable and actionable data for a wide variety of clients ranging from national daily newspapers to small market radio stations, from million+ circulation consumer magazines to e-commerce websites and from advertising agencies to multinational corporations. Totum has conducted marketing and communications research for beverage, information technology (IT), women's products, financial institutions, automotive and government departments.
Totum has been the longstanding supplier of research to News Media Canada.
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This study How Geography Impacts Media Access, Usage And Engagement was made possible through the generous support of the Alberta Civil Society Fund |