Methodology
The Canadian Community Newspaper Database – it is the name of both the study and organization that runs it.
Though completely funded by member newspapers, ComBase is an independent company run by a Tri-Partite Board of Directors, each of whom has an equal vote. There are representatives from each of the publisher, advertiser and agency categories.
The ComBase 2008/2009 Study was conducted by Leger Marketing and provides data on more than 200 markets in English Canada.
ComBase 2008/2009 Methodology
The 2008/2009 Study includes slight modifications to the original methodology used in the Pilot Study and the 2003/2005 Study.
ComBase 2008/2009 continues to employ the ‘Recent Reading’ technique currently in use by readership studies in Canada and around the world. ComBase’s specifications meet and exceed those set other media studies such as NADbank and PMB and, in fact, ComBase was appraised and endorsed by the Canadian Advertising Research Foundation (CARF).
The interview begins with a 3-month screen-in question for a list of market publications that includes dailies, entertainment, agricultural, automotive, employment, alternative, ethnic and other print publications. All publications identified as read in the past three months are put through the standard recency and frequency suite of questions.
Weekend publications or weekend-like publications (i.e. community newspaper editions whose distributions, formats or editorial are substantially different from the weekday product, but published on a day other than Saturday or Sunday) are measured separately.
ComBase 2008/2009 Interviewing Method
ComBase conducts a telephone interview with adults 18+. Respondents are chosen at random and all households with telephones in the identified market area has an equal chance of being selected. To further ensure the randomness, and therefore the reliability, of the survey, there is no substitution of the respondent allowed. Interviews are conducted in English, although those with other mother tongues were also interviewed.
ComBase 2008/2009 Timing
Interviewing for the 2008/2009 study was conducted between January and June 2008, September and October 2008 as well as January to June 2009. There were breaks for significant holidays that might interfere with our ability to find respondents or result in non-publishing days. Market starts were staggered over the interviewing period and the sample was released in multiple waves, which averages readership measurement over time.
Response Rates
ComBase contracts for and achieves a minimum of 35% response rate in each market measured. Response rates are the cornerstones of reliable research. We accomplish this difficult task in a variety of ways including:
• The interviews are spread out over a minimum of 12 weeks to catch potential respondents at different days and times of the day
• A minimum of 12 repeat contacts must be made to each telephone number
ComBase 2008/2009 Geography / Market Definition
Geography for the 2008/2009 is primarily based on distribution data from the Market Analyzer program which is updated based on publication input annually. Geographic boundaries for measurement are based on 45% household penetration for the majority of publications.
Geography at the data analysis stage is provided for both StatsCan definitions as well as Newspaper Market Areas (NMA’s) as some publications deliver to a broader area than the StatsCan defined town.
• CMAs (Census Metropolitan Area) – Population 100,000 or more in an urbanized core
• CAs (Census Agglomeration) – Population 10,000 or more in an urbanized core
• Suburbs (often CSDs)
• Newspaper Market Areas (NMA’s)
• CSD (Census Subdivisions – towns, villages, etc)
• Provinces
What ComBase Measures
Newspaper readership, other media usage and demographic information is gathered.
• Readership of community newspapers, local and non-resident (print and online)
• Readership of daily newspapers
• Readership of other print press including shoppers, agricultural press, alternative publications, etc.
• Amount of paper read
• Frequency of reading
• Preferred community newspaper if more than one read
• Reasons for reading community newspapers
• Readership of flyers delivered in community newspapers (11 different categories)
• Rating of all newspapers read
• Radio listening, TV viewing, internet usage
• Demographic information about the respondent and household
ComBase 2008/2009 Sample Size
ComBase 2008/2009 no longer conducts a rolling sample study. A single sample is conducted with a minimum number of completions for each newspaper market area. Sample size by market ranges from 100 to 400 (depending on population and number of households) enabling more detailed data analysis and a lower margin or error.
Margin of Error
The margin of error is a measurement of the accuracy of the results of any survey.
Example: A margin of error of plus or minus 5% means that there is a 95% chance that the responses of the target population as a whole would fall somewhere between 5% more or 5% less than the responses of the sample (a 10% spread).
An important factor in determining the margin of error is the size of the sample/number of interviews. Larger samples are more likely to yield results close to the target population quantity and thus have smaller margins of error than more modest-sized samples.
On an average sample of 150 the margin of error is likely to be in the range of +/- 7.9%. The larger the size of the sample, the lower the margin of error will be. On a sample of 200 the margin of error is +/- 6.9% and on a sample of 300 the margin of error is likely to be in the range of +/- 5.5%.