'We invest in content,' Globe publisher says

More Canadians are reading the Globe and Mail than any other brand according to a recently released study.
The study by Vividata, which is the amalgamated organization of NADbank and Print Measurement Bureau (PMB), found the Globe has about 6.6 million readers across its print and digital platforms. Comparatively, Postmedia has a print readership of 7.1 million across all of its brands. The Vividata study compared 80 consumer magazines and 78 daily newspapers.
J-Source spoke to Globe publisher and CEO Phillip Crawley about how the brand has continued to attract readership in an evolving marketplace.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
J-Source: What makes the Globe the primary destination for people who want Canadian news and Canadian business news?
Phillip Crawley: We invest in content. That’s really the simple story here.
We’ve got ownership from the Thomson family, who have got a long standing record of being interested in serious journalism and quality journalism. For three generations they’ve been media owners—they’ve owned major titles in the UK in the days when they had the Times and the Sunday Times and still feel very invested in the idea of creating quality content, however it’s consumed.
In that sense we’re fortunate to have that kind of sense of mission—making a difference in Canadian society, standing up to the right things.
Successes like the thalidomide story that we ran, for which we won the Michener this year, those things matter to them. That’s why we keep investing in foreign bureau coverage when other people are cutting back. We believe that’s very much part of what Globe readers want. They want perspective on what’s going on around the world from Canadian people, from Canadian eyes taking in the stories that matter around the world.
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