IT has been confirmed that The Irish Times is the most widely read and is considered to be the most important reading material for senior business people in Ireland.
This dominant position covers executives in manufacturing, financial services and other services, and also different management positions. The newspaper also dominates the business travel market and the Internet market which are used by senior business people.
The European Business Readership Survey 1996 shows that 41 per cent of senior executives consider The Irish Times to be important reading material. This response rate is well ahead of all other publications. Business and Finance, the weekly magazine, follows with 18 per cent. Others include the Financial Times with 16 per cent and the Sunday Business Post with 12 per cent. The Irish Independent is considered important reading material by 9 per cent of those surveyed.
While the Financial Times is viewed as the most important British publication, by senior business people, the response rate for other British publications is much lower. London based, The Times, which is trying to increase its circulation in the Irish market, had the poorest response rate, with not a single respondent considering that newspaper as important reading material. The Sunday Times was considered important by 5 per cent of the respondents, the Daily Telegraph was lower at 2 per cent while The Independent had a response rate of 1 per cent. The Economist was considered important by 7 per cent.
When asked about readership, 85 per cent (men 84 per cent, women 92 per cent) said they read The Irish Times. This compares with 56 per cent for the Irish Independent and 15 per cent by the Examiner, the other Irish dailies. The Financial Times is read by 27 per cent, The Times by 11 per cent, The Independent by 6 per cent and the Daily Telegraph by 5 per cent.
In the Sunday newspaper market, 70 per cent of senior business people, read the Sunday Independent, followed by the Sunday Business Post with 50 per cent while the Sunday Times and the Sunday Tribune are each read by 47 per cent.
In the weeklies market, 56 per cent said they read Business and Finance. This is followed by The Economist with 23 per cent and Stubbs Gazette with 13 per cent.
The Irish Times dominates the different business sectors but the financial sector is the most important with 100 per cent of senior business people reading the newspaper. This falls to 78 per cent in the manufacturing sector.
The higher paid the executive, the more likely he/she is an Irish Times reader. In the high paid category, for example, 96 per cent are readers, this falls to 83 per cent in the medium salary category.
The Irish Times also dominates the business travel market for senior executives with the percentage varying between 85 per cent and 97 per cent depending on the route taken. Some 17 per cent of senior business people use the Internet, the survey found. Of those, 77 per cent read The Irish Times. In the E Mail market, 88 per cent are readers of The Irish Times.
The European Business Readership Survey was jointly organised by The Financial Times and Research Services Limited. It covered 369,441 senior business people in 51,478 industrial companies with at least 250 employees (plus others with 150 or more employees and head offices of banks and insurance companies), in 17 European countries. Questionnaires were distributed from January to June and replies were received for analysis from all the countries up to July 25th.
The Irish distribution involved 657 questionnaires and the response rate was 49 per cent. This is up on the average response rate of 45 per cent. The highest response rate was from Sweden with 62 per cent, the lowest was the Netherlands with 39 per cent.
