Toronto Sun...

[FTWWTF]

Did anyone else notice that the price of a daily paper went up from .53 cents to 1 dollar.

 

[MattRoxx]

People who buy the Sun don't read much and mostly just look at the pictures, it could be a while until this becomes common knowledge among them.

 

[durexguy]

Double the price!

 

[elwoodinontario]

People who buy the Sun don't read much and mostly just look at the pictures, it could be a while until this becomes common knowledge among them.

Quite the stereotype there!

 

[Keebler Elf]

Well, it is known that Toronto Sun buyers have an average reading level of something like grade 6 or 7, which is lower than all the other Toronto papers. So not entirely a stereotype...

 

[Carling]

Well, it is known that Toronto Sun buyers have an average reading level of something like grade 6 or 7, which is lower than all the other Toronto papers. So not entirely a stereotype...

and don't forget they are hypocrites as well...they have SP and MP ads in their classifieds while having a dozen opinion columns of how "evil" the hobby is

 

[Madeline Rhodes]

Actually... Most newspapers circulating have a lower reading level then one might hope.

http://www.impact-information.com/impactinfo/newsletter/plwork15.htm

During the period from the beginning of the New Deal to the end of World War II, newspapers had climbed steadily in reading difficulty. The work of Flesch and Gunning in the 40s and 50s gave them new life. They lowered average reading level of the newspapers from the 12th to the 9th grade. The reading level of the United Press dispatches went from the 16th to the 11th grade.
The results were considered something of a miracle at the time. Newspaper readership increased up to 45 percent. One 1948 study in the Journalism Quarterly showed that lowering the reading difficulty of a newspaper from the 13th to the 6th grade increased the number of paragraphs read by 93.11 percent.

I actually had this covered in a class in school. It has a lot to do with marketing and profitability as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readability

Readability and newspaper readership

Several studies in the 1940s showed that even small increases in readability greatly increases readership in large-circulation newspapers.
In 1947, Donald Murphy ofWallace's Farmer used a split-run edition to study the effects of making text easier to read. They found that reducing from the 9th to the 6th-grade level increased readership 43% for an article on 'nylon'. There was a gain of 42,000 readers in a circulation of 275,000. He found a 60% increase in readership for an article on 'corn'. He also found a better response from people under 35.[SUP][/SUP]
Wilber Schramm interviewed 1,050 newspaper readers. He found that an easier reading style helps to decide how much of an article is read. This was called reading persistence, depth, or perseverance. He also found that people will read less of long articles than of short ones. A story 9 paragraphs long will lose three out of 10 readers by the 5th paragraph. A shorter story will lose only two. Schramm also found that the use of subheads, bold-face paragraphs, and stars to break up a story actually lose readers.
A study in 1947 by Melvin Lostutter showed that newspapers generally were written at a level five years above the ability of average American adult readers. He also found that the reading ease of newspaper articles had little to do with the education, experience, or personal interest of the journalists writing the stories. It had more to do with the convention and culture of the industry. Lostutter argued for more readability testing in newspaper writing. He wrote that improved readability has to be a "conscious process somewhat independent of the education and experience of the staffs writers."
A study by Charles Swanson in 1948 showed that better readability increases the total number of paragraphs read by 93% and the number of readers reading every paragraph by 82%.
In 1948, Bernard Feld did a study of every item and ad in the Birmingham News of 20 November 1947. He divided the items into those above the 8th-grade level and those at the 8th grade or below. He chose the 8th-grade breakpoint because that was the average reading level of adult readers. An 8th-grade text "will reach about 50 percent of all American grown-ups," he wrote. Among the wire-service stories, the lower group got two-thirds more readers, and among local stories, 75 percent more readers. Feld also believed in drilling writers in Flesch's clear-writing principles.
Both Rudolf Flesch and Robert Gunning worked extensively with newspapers and the wire services in improving readability. Mainly through their efforts in a few short years, the readability of U.S. newspapers went from the 16th to the 11th-grade level, where it remains today.
The two publications with the largest circulations, TV Guide (13 million) and Readers Digest (12 million), are written at the 9th-grade level. The most popular novels are written at the 7th-grade level. This supports the fact that the average adult reads at the 9th-grade level. It also shows that, for recreation, people read texts that are two grades below their actual reading level.

Not taking into account those who might not have a full grasp of the spoken language, let alone the written language. You still have to take into account that they need to market to their readership.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/literacy

Before the late 1980s, no national surveys had been conducted in Canada to determine the degree of literacy of Canadians. The first such survey was conducted in 1987. Sponsored by Southam News, this survey estimated 24% of adult Canadians were illiterate. Since the 1980s adult literacy has been the focus of several international studies. A multi-language adult literacy assessment was conducted for the first time in 1994 and repeated in 2003 by the National Literacy Secretariat, Human Resources Development Canada, and Statistics Canada in cooperation with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and UNESCO. The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) found that literacy in Canada has changed little in the previous years.
A large study on literacy by Statistics Canada was released in 1989. This study identified the following levels of reading skills among adult Canadians, and, although more recent studies have been conducted, its standards still provide the parameters by which literacy is evaluated.
Level 1 (22% of adults) Canadians at this level have difficulty dealing with printed materials and have few basic skills for decoding or working with text. They most likely identify themselves as people who cannot read.
Level 2 (26% of adults) Canadians at this level can use printed materials only for limited purposes such as finding a familiar word in a simple text that is clearly laid out. They would likely recognize themselves as having difficulties with common reading materials.
Level 3 (33% of adults) Canadians at this level can use reading materials in a variety of situations provided the tasks involved are not too complex. While these people generally do not see themselves as having major reading difficulties, they tend to avoid situations requiring reading. This level is considered by many countries to be the minimum for successful participation in society.
Level 4 or 5 (20% of adults) Canadians at this level have strong literacy skills. This is a large and diverse group that exhibits a wide range of reading skills and many strategies for dealing with complex materials. These people can meet most reading demands and handle new reading challenges.
A portion of the adults evaluated in the 1989 study who were at the lower levels of literacy were immigrants and not literate in English or French, so the results are not an accurate measure of true literacy in this group. However, about 3% of the adults born in Canada were at level 1. The tests used in these surveys used materials adults normally confront in their daily life: bus schedules, manuals, classified advertisements, etc. It is not clear, however, which level is necessary for adults to read all that they need in order to meet all the literacy demands they face in Canadian society.

At the end of the day. Look at the readership of the various papers. If they are willing to publish it.

http://mediakit.nationalpost.com/newspaper/toronto-reader-profile/ - Targeting age 52+ specifically.

http://media.thestar.topscms.com/acrobat/51/2c/45a878754fe19abf8a91f99ab4d1.pdf - Targeting age 25-54.

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/71995549/Circulation-and-Readership---Everyday_-Toronto-SUN-readers- - Targeting age 18-49, and the buying market when it comes to digital and electronic items which gives it a better stance for advertising rates, and rates of return.

I know... I know. I made some of this a bit too complex. Some will have read it, some will have skimmed it and some peoples eyes will have glazed over around paragraph 3.

Instead of bashing something because it isn't what YOU read. Take into consideration that everything a major publication chooses to make use of has 1 end goal. The financial impact on their corporation. If you look at the cost of the paper, vs the target audience. You will notice it correlates as well. I am sure someone else can post the prices that are the daily (not subscription) cost to purchase a paper. I'd do it but I am not in the city today.

Maddy

 

[great bear]

The Bear still loves to read news papers, books, magazines printed on paper. Old school.

 

[OddSox]

and don't forget they are hypocrites as well...they have SP and MP ads in their classifieds while having a dozen opinion columns of how "evil" the hobby is

And the Star runs stories about how "great" the hobby is, and refuses the ads. So what?

 

[JackBurton]

+1 Matt: if you can even find any writing amongst the stereo ads. People who buy the sun don't read. Much. It's reflective of the "journalists" who write for them and the poor quality of their columns. Hell, when leatherdale got fired for missing everything leading up to the 2008 economic crisis, you know a paper is was off base with their finger on the important issues.

 

[Carling]

And the Star runs stories about how "great" the hobby is, and refuses the ads. So what?

shows you the quality of paper they run...right wing cons with an agenda, yet still profitting off of the avails of prostitution...yep , great set of morals!..btw, 50 per cent of the ads they sell are asian B&S .at least the Star runs actual articles analyzing prostitution and are not involved in making money ...sounds pretty straight up to me.unlike the SUN

 

[FatOne]

It might be British but it still works.


Hacker: Don’t tell me about the press. I know exactly who reads the papers:

The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country;
The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country;
The Times is read by the people who actually do run the country;
The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country;
The Financial Times is read by people who own the country;
The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country;
And The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.

Sir Humphrey: Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?

Bernard: Sun readers don’t care who runs the country, as long as she’s got big tits.

 

[train]

Most of these comments were so predictable and made by the same guys that can only play one or two tunes.

 

[Big Sleazy]

It's called inflation. Get used to it. There's more coming.

BS

 

[cye]

It.s not inflation it is drop in revenue to the internet that led to the price hike.

 

[Buick Mackane]

The Sun's main competition isn't the Star, Globe & Mail or the National Post - it's from the free newspapers like Metro, 24hrs etc.
Yet they're increasing the price? Chop the oldtimers from Day 1 and their huge salaries first. Then bust up their newspaper union like the editorial hypocrites want the City of Toronto to do.

 

[Carling]

The Sun's main competition isn't the Star, Globe & Mail or the National Post - it's from the free newspapers like Metro, 24hrs etc.
Yet they're increasing the price? Chop the oldtimers from Day 1 and their huge salaries first. Then bust up their newspaper union like the editorial hypocrites want the City of Toronto to do.

+1 .... i would love to see Sue Ann Levy and Peter Worthington collecting EI..i would throw palestinian coloured rocks at them while they were in line..lol

 

[oldjones]

The Sun's main competition isn't the Star, Globe & Mail or the National Post - it's from the free newspapers like Metro, 24hrs etc.

Of course the Sun and Star both own, print and give away those freebie things. Which do sell ad space, but get their content at cut rates, because it's covered by the paying customers who attract the higher-fee advertisers to the grown-up papers. But it is a struggle to balance it all.

That's the real core question: Where will the grown-ups and their money end up to get the real, thoughtful news that papers traditionally sold? Not the freebies, and judging from the news-sites I've seen, not the interwebs neither. Nor TV and Radio.

Mebbe we'll have to learn to get along without real, hard info in any depth. "Like who cares, OK? we've got YouTube and a thousand channel universe".

But for the price of the Sun for a week, you can have a real newspaper at your door Sunday morning.