Readership Survey: Newspaper penetration in UAE reaches 59.5pc

Daily newspapers have a 59.5 per cent penetration among the UAE's resident population, as compared to 52.9 per cent for weekly magazines and 9.1 per cent for monthly magazines, according to two completely independent surveys conducted by Ipsos-Stat and Business Compass, two international research companies.

Gulf News had the highest readership among English newspapers, at 17.9 per cent, followed by Khaleej Times at 10.7 per cent, and Gulf Today at 0.8 per cent.

Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, managing director of Gulf News, yesterday urged the print media in the UAE to raise their standards in offering transparent and audited information on their circulation and readership profile for the benefit of readers and market players. He criticised a section of the English media for making false claims about their circulation figures, citing the Audit Bureau of Circulation, which does not conduct regular audits on all the media in the UAE.

"A media vehicle claims to be the largest ABC-certified English language newspaper in the Gulf. This is a breach of its ABC membership," Al Tayer told a gathering of media professionals and the business community.

"They have breached the ABC membership by misleading readers by the manner in which they are presenting the ABC data and circulation figures.

"Their claim of having the highest ABC-certified circulation in the region implies that all other English language newspapers, including Gulf News, have also been audited."

Throwing an open challenge to all the print media, especially the English newspapers and magazines, he said: "A comprehensive audit by two international audit firms of the four criteria of newsprint import and consumption, circulation revenue and complimentary copies distributed will show Gulf News is far ahead of the rest," citing the Ipsos-Stat research findings.

The findings – two of the most comprehensive media surveys ever conducted in this part of the world – were unveiled yesterday.

An analysis of the reach of English newspapers among non-Arabs revealed that Gulf News was again the leader with a reach of 33.6 per cent, followed by Khaleej Times at 21.2 per cent and Gulf Today at 1.4 per cent.

Non-Arab segment

A similar trend was shown among various aspects of the non-Arab segment – Gulf News was the leader in reach in each of these: 1. Emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah; 2. Among major nationality groupings of Indian, Sri Lankan, Pakistani, Western expatriates and others; 3. All the income brackets; 4. All the age groups; 5. Among both male and female and 6. Among all the employed categories of management, professionals, self-employed and employees.

Among the 2,403 regular daily newspaper readers sampled based on total publication readers, 42.5 per cent read Al Khaleej, 30 per cent read Gulf News, followed by Al Ittihad which is read by 23.9 per cent while 18 per cent read Khaleej Times, 10.1 per cent read Al Bayan, 3.3 per cent read Akhbar Al Arab, 1.9 per cent read Akhbar Al Khaleej and 1.3 per cent read Gulf Today.

Among the ethnic non-Arab readers sampled, 33.6 per cent of readers said they read Gulf News, followed by Khaleej Times, read by 21.2 per cent and Gulf Today, preferred by 1.4 per cent. On a breakdown of readership by emirate, 34.57 per cent of those surveyed in Abu Dhabi said they preferred Gulf News, while 23.95 per cent preferred Khaleej Times. In Dubai, 44.43 per cent said they preferred Gulf News, followed by 23.56 per cent who chose Khaleej Times.

However, in Sharjah, 37.25 per cent said they read Gulf News, followed by 17.71 per cent for Khaleej Times and 5.81 per cent who chose Gulf Today.

However, in the other emirates, Khaleej Times is preferred by more readers than Gulf News, among those surveyed.

Khaleej Times is preferred by 12.19 per cent of those questioned in the rest of the emirates, while Gulf News is read by 11.15 per cent of respondents.

A similar survey conducted by Business Compass, another independent research organisation, reflected the findings of Ipsos-Stat. Both surveys' findings put Gulf News ahead of the rest in the UAE market.

"The undisputed leader of reach among English newspapers is Gulf News and among English magazines it is Friday," the findings show.

According to the Business Compass survey, on the overall reach of the daily newspapers, 31.2 per cent of those surveyed preferred Gulf News, while 18.9 per cent read Khaleej Times and 4.6 per cent preferred the Gulf Today. Among the Western expatriates, 94.9 per cent of the respondents preferred Gulf News.

Among the Asian expatriates, 54.2 per cent of the interviewees said they preferred Gulf News, followed by 36.4 per cent who preferred Khaleej Times and 8.2 per cent who liked the Gulf Today.

According to the Ipsos-Stat research, average issue readership among non-Arabs varied among age groups.

Khaleej Times was preferred by 33.9 per cent over Gulf News which was preferred by 28.7 per cent among sampled readers belonging to the age group of 15 to 19.

However, Gulf News was preferred by more mature readers, among all the other groups ranging from 19 years and older.

An analysis of the reach of English magazines among non-Arabs revealed that Friday was the leader with a reach of 28.2 per cent followed by Weekend at 15.2 per cent and Entertainment Plus at 2.3 per cent.

A similar trend was shown among various aspects of the non-Arab segment — Friday was the leader in reach in each of these: 1. Emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah; 2. Major nationality groupings of Indian, Sri Lankan, Pakistani, Western expatriates and others; 3. All the income brackets; 4. Among both male and female readership and 5. Among all the employed categories of management, professionals, self-employed and employees.

Descriptive analysis

According to Business Compass Survey, 18 per cent of the sampled readers preferred Friday, while 10.6 per cent preferred Weekend and 5 per cent read Entertainment Plus.

A descriptive analysis of the readership profile of Gulf News, Friday, Entertainment Plus and Aquarius was also revealed yesterday at the presentation.

"Ipsos-Stat recently conducted a fresh survey of media, customer habits and publication readership in the UAE.

The objective of the print readership survey – National Media Analysis (NMA) – was to measure the readership habits of the residents of the UAE," said an Ipsos-Stat spokesperson.

"The objective of NMA is to provide the 'common currency' for the print advertising transactions in the UAE market, thus providing vital information about matching markets with the media allowing detailed analysis by demographics criteria that defines specific target groups.

"Ipsos-Stat uses a standard method of collecting data, offering accurate results for a wide range of vehicles within a single survey. Nonetheless, it is our opinion that NMA represents one of the best designs available in the light of current knowledge, experience and budget allocated and in terms of repeatability, stability and breadth of acceptance in the region."

The NMA sample was designed to produce 2,403 interviews covering all