Globe and Mail publisher Phillip Crawley says he's only interested in readers who earn $100,000

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      With a Saturday newsstand price topping $3, including tax, the Globe and Mail is not targeted at those with low incomes.

      Nevertheless, it's surprising to hear publisher and CEO Phillip Crawley declare that he's also not overly enamoured with those of middle incomes, either.

      The journalism.co.uk website has reported Crawley's statement at World Publishing Expo 2013 that his company is aiming at a "high-end market".

      "We are really only interested in readers who earn more than $100,000," Crawley said, according to the website report.

      According to Statistics Canada, there were slightly more than 1.6 million people in this country who earned $100,000 or more in 2011.

      Nearly 200,000 of them lived in British Columbia.

      Canada's population in 2012 reached 34.9 million.

      For anyone interested in mathematics, it means that the Globe and Mail is "only interested" in attracting readership from about five percent of the population.

      It's not the first time a Globe publisher has sloughed off poor readers. One of his predecessors, Roy Megarry, stopped offering home delivery in postal codes where average income levels weren't up to the newspaper's standards.

      The Globe and Mail's majority owner, the Thomson family, doesn't have to worry about that ever happening to them. It had a net worth of $20.3 billion as of March 2013, according to Forbes magazine. That ranked first in Canada and 24th in the world.

      Comments

      16 Comments

      OccupyMedic

      Oct 8, 2013 at 10:48am

      It's not called "The Glib & Stale" for nothing.

      Tony Barnes

      Oct 8, 2013 at 11:00am

      If the Thompson family shared their fortune with Canadians they could create 200,000 new customers for the Globe

      ACMESalesRep

      Oct 8, 2013 at 11:02am

      There are many companies that have been successful targeting wealthy markets. It's just rare that you hear it discussed so openly, or in such crass terms.

      (Then again, they don't call him “Creepy” Crawley for nothing.)

      Forest

      Oct 8, 2013 at 11:47am

      Crawley's statement has less to do with 'actual' readers than the advertising revenues such chinless 'toffs are meant to attract. The G&M has historically found its ad base in high-end jewellers, designers,etc. and they secure these revenues by promising advertisers that that their subscribers are wealthy people who like such things. Of course the ideological content of the paper follows suit (hence Coyne, Beltchforth and the Serial Plagiarist). But the real content of any newspaper is the advertising, as any newspaper's real purpose is attracting eyeballs to such advertising.

      RUK

      Oct 8, 2013 at 4:22pm

      Wanting to be the Robb Report of Canadian dailies isn't so bad, is it? Seriously, is anyone shocked? They have a pretty decent business section, some pretty decent news coverage with international stories that are more than a paragraph long, various indigestibly obtuse weekend features meant to be consumed in the garden with a glass of the cheeky organic white, and an essential obit section.

      This screams "aging middle manager and his wife" to me, in the way that the Toronto Sun's layout, focus, and storytelling beckons the 30-ish white male slob with an out of control sports gambling problem.

      It's all good!

      That's more than the government is interested in...

      Oct 8, 2013 at 9:04pm

      5% that's positively mass democracy! The governments are interested in the top .028 %.

      Alan Layton

      Oct 8, 2013 at 10:26pm

      "For anyone interested in mathematics, it means that the Globe and Mail is "only interested" in attracting readership from about five percent of the population."

      Yes and that population includes babies, people who don't read newspapers and those who don't speak English. In terms of readership it's one of the top two in Canada.

      400 ppm

      Oct 9, 2013 at 5:58am

      I'm confused Charlie. He's in the advertising business just like the GS and everyone else in media. Why wouldn't he want a specific set of eyeballs reading his typing.

      Are you saying the GS doesn't have a target audience it keeps in mind when it decides its stories.

      Isn't it obvious that this story playing to your audience.

      Hazlit

      Oct 9, 2013 at 6:53am

      I am definitely middle (lower) income. I am all in favour of attracting rich readers. Does this mean I get a free subscription?

      Ted Alcuitas

      Oct 9, 2013 at 8:29am

      Oh cripes!

      What is a retired newspaper junkie to do now?

      After having migrated from the Sun to the G&M and just starting to warm up to its reporting albeit skimpy especially its B.C edition and obits, where am I supposed to go?

      Certainly I don’t belong to the one percent - not by a long shot.

      This probably explains the recent deluge of high-end glossy magazine inserts that comes with the Globe’s subscription.

      Magazines like Montecristo, Style Advisor and just this morning – Okanagan Homes to name a few, are starting to pile up in our closet, mostly unread. My wife and I are taking turns trying to ‘recycle’ these trash by donating it to hospitals, doctor’s offices, etc.

      I cannot stand the ‘National Pest’ and must survive through the web editions of other newspapers, which only provide limited coverage.

      With this revelation, I have to come to terms with the reality that in this town, only the Georgia Straight feeds my appetite except that it only comes out weekly.

      Occasionally I pick up Metro if I need to be tickled by Paul Sullivan’s wit and humour.

      There you go Mr. Crawley.

      Count me out then!