BT readers younger, more affluent and engaged

Singapore

THE Business Times has a stable, high quality readership and has strong support among the higher income and tertiary educated, according to the latest Nielsen study.

Released on Wednesday, Nielsen's Consumer and Media View study showed that professionals, managers, executives and businessmen (PMEBs) account for 78 per cent of BT's readership, an increase from 72 per cent in 2018. This is the highest percentage among all other newspapers. Eight in 10 (83.5 per cent) of its readers have a monthly household income of more than S$7,000.

The "affluent", defined in the study as BT readers with personal income of more than S$7,000 (73 per cent) and PMEBs, are likely to view and visit the website of an advertisement on BT's platforms in order to find out more information. And 67 per cent of these readers are influenced by the paper to go for an event advertised in it while more than 60 per cent enjoy attending these events.

BT also saw digital readership among affluent readers rise for five consecutive years in 2019.

The majority of BT readers are in their 30s and 40s with males dominating at 60.8 per cent. Around 39 per cent live in private properties and 86.1 per cent are tertiary educated.

More than 70 per cent of the paper's readers read five to six issues of the paper per week, a 20 per cent increase from last year. The paper too attracts a younger crowd with the median age at 36 years old, in comparison to the national average of 43 years old.

Among the newspapers published by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), The Straits Times continues to be the most-read English title, with a combined print and digital readership reach of 26.9 per cent on an average daily basis. Lianhe ZaoBao remains Singapore's top Chinese-language paper and has a combined daily readership of 12.8 per cent among the Chinese population. Berita Harian's daily combined readership is 3 per cent while Tamil Murasu has a combined daily readership of 0.9 per cent.

Overall, despite a 10 per cent decline in newspaper readership for print and digital editions, there has been a positive growth in readership for both websites and apps for the majority of the publications, according to Google Analytics.

SPH magazines saw double digit growth for key segments and magazine readers are also more affluent than the national average.

The study also showed that the majority (67.4 per cent) of the population still feel that mainstream media produces credible and trustworthy information.

Ignatius Low, chief commercial officer of SPH Media Solutions, said: "SPH is the only major local news provider with paying customers, delivering a superior audience that is accustomed to paying a premium for quality, credibility and reliability.

"Running an ad campaign across a variety of SPH platforms - print, online, radio and outdoor - also results in deeper and more lasting consumer engagement."