News

TV and print still dominate in Asia

Similar to their counterparts in Europe, Asia’s business elite are continuing to interact with traditional media on a daily basis, according to Ipsos’ latest BE:Asia results. 

At 98%, reading newspapers and magazines is the most popular way to consume media followed by watching TV at 81% and visiting websites at 74%.

Wall Street Journal Asia continues to lead the dailies with an average issue readership (AIR) of 20.0% which translates to reaching 47,708 execs. The Financial Times with an AIR of 15.5%, the International Herald Tribune at 8.9% and USA Today with an AIR of 5.4% round-out the dailies category.

National Geographic maintains its position amongst the monthlies with an AIR of 22.7%, closely followed by the debutant Forbes at 20.8%. Readers Digest (English), Harvard Business Review and Business Traveller all round-out the top 5 with AIRs of 17.1%, 15.9% and 13.3%, respectively.

In the weekly category, Time continues to lead with an AIR of 24.6%. Fortune at 22.8%, which is appearing in the ranking for the first time, edges out Newsweek’s AIR of 22.3%. The Economist follows closely at 20.0%, followed by Yazhou Zhoukan at 6.7%.

Despite seeing its weekly reach drop by 2%, CNN continues to dominate the TV category with a weekly reach of 51.8%, followed in second by Discovery Channel at 44.8%. National Geographic, BBC World News and Channel News Asia complete the top five with weekly reaches of 41.9%, 36.0% and 23.7%, respectively. CNBC narrowly misses out on the top five with a reach of 23.0%.

With a monthly website reach of 24.6% cnn.com is the clear front runner, with the majority of the top 5 being separated by one percentage point. Bbc.com/bbc.co.uk is in second with a monthly reach of 17.4% followed by cnnmoney.com (fortune.com) at 15.1%, bloomberg.com at 14.2% and businessweek.com at 14.0%.

Look for further insights into the BE:Asia and BE: Europe results in the Q4 issue of M&M which hits desks at the end of the year.

Martina Lacey, London