By Mark Hanzlik, Executive Director

Just as the Summer reaches peak temperatures each year, we receive an annual readership summary report of AltMedia from The Media Audit.   This year was no exception though the arrival was a few weeks later than usual, the results were nearly identical to the previous year.

In this report, we not only receive individual market readership data but also network-wide totals and averages that allow us to view a timeline of AltMedia Readership across a number of years at once.

Here’s some of the top-line numbers and a few takeaways from the newest report.

Total number of publications:   129

Total number of markets:  86

Last issue cume (18+ yrs) Readership:  13,100,000

Four-issue cume (18+ yrs) Readership:  24,700,000

Categories with little change over previous year:   Education, Income,
Household stats

Categories with change in index over previous year:  Age (younger),
Drink wine or beer frequently (increase),  purchasing CD’s, etc (decrease)

Overall, the single issue and 4-issue cume reach by altmedia readers dropped from the previous report indicating  less readership of the printed products while at the same time on the online side, viewership continues to increase.

We also use the network-wide readership figures on a single marketing sheet summary for AltMedia readership, here’s the latest (shown below).

The Media Audit Survey period data is drawn from January 2011 – March 2012 report period.