24. 12. 2005

WHAT SERBIA READS?

BELGRADE, December 24, 2005 – Around 30 percent of the Serbian population reads daily press every day, 70 percent flips through some daily at least once a week, while 21 percent of the population never reads newspapers. According to the findings of a major field survey of print media ratings and readership views in Serbia, carried out by IREX ProMedia and Strategic Marketing, one third of the population never reads magazines, one third very rarely (once a month), and one third reads them at least once a week. The survey, conducted between October 31 and November 5, 2005, showed that the circulations had increased mainly due to the increase of the number of regular readers. Male and more educated population, with the average monthly earnings of 75 Euros per family member, read mostly the daily newspapers, while female population, teenagers and people with higher level of education, with the average monthly income of more than 125 Euros, read magazines and periodicals. People from urban environment mostly read dailies and periodicals. People do not read newspapers due to lack of interest, while the lack of money is seen as the main reason for not reading periodicals. According to the findings of the survey, readers do not like to read columns in dailies or periodicals, and find the readers’ letters the least interesting. The dailies that the citizens mostly like are Blic and Vecernje Novosti. Blic Zena, Skandal, Svet and Nedeljni Telegraf are the magazines with the highest ratings. Around 40 percent of the population believes the print media in Serbia is controlled and under various influences. 36 percent believes the newspapers are controlled by politicians and political parties, while 16 percent of the readers think the wealthy people and businessmen make have the most influence on the print media. Only 12 percent of the surveyed population believes all newspapers are objective and reliable, while 50 percent think they carry untrue information (according to the findings, the Belgrade daily Kurir leads the list). Also, Blic and Vecernje novosti are rated as the most trusted and reliable dailies. The survey of print media ratings in Serbia is conducted on the sample of 1524 respondents.