Metro International is Europe's most read title

by Jacquie Bowser Brand Republic 30-Jan-08, 11:00

LONDON - Freesheet Metro International is the most widely read print publication in western Europe, with an average of 5.9% of the population picking up each issue in 2007, according to the EMS 2007 Winter Survey.

The EMS survey is produced by Synovate and records international media consumption among the 39m highest income earners in western Europe, who are the wealthiest 13% of the population. The EMS Select survey covers only the top 3%.

Metro's various editions were read by 5.9% of the western European population in 2007, up by 1.6% from the year before. Its reach among Europe's very highest earners also rose by 0.3% to 6.1%, according to the Select survey.

Alistair Ballantyne, Metro International global sales director, said: "Metro International is still the world's largest newspaper, perfect for reaching mass consumers. Now with the latest EMS results, we can prove how good we are at also reaching high-earning individuals and key decision makers."

Fellow freesheet 20 Minutes, distributed in France and Spain, also reported a rise in readership. The title was read daily on average by 2.4% of Europeans in 2007, which was up 0.8% on the 1.6% readership recorded in 2006.

Time magazine suffered a decline in average readership during 2007, dropping from 2.9% to 2.7% of the European population. However, its popularity among Select respondents remained steady at 5.1%.

Both the Wall Street Journal Europe and USA Today newspapers reported a drop in average readership from 0.3% to 0.2% in 2007. But their readership among the top earners in Europe stayed the same; the WSJ Europe reached 0.7% while USA Today reached 0.6%.

National Geographic's readership remained steady at 5.6%, but its popularity among Europe's affluent community increased by 0.1% to 8.7% in 2007.

The full list of countries included in the EMS survey is: Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

Synovate's separate CEMS survey covers Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, and will include Russia from June 2008.