How "likable" is your newspaper?

Post Magazine, Sunday Morning Post
August 14, 2011
[Yes I'm doing self-promotion for
my cover story here]

"Circulation" has been newspapers' traditional bargaining power when it comes to selling ad spaces. But people challenge the figures all the time. I'm no marketing/ advertising expert but now there's an alternative way to measure the value of a newspaper's brand. Apparently with more media organisations setting up their own official Facebook pages, we now have a better idea of how "likable" a newspaper is - at least among Facebook users.

Here's the result of a random survey [conducted by Vivienne Chow in her own time] of some of the world's English language newspapers' pages on Facebook on Sunday, August 14, 2011:

Newspaper (Number of LIKEs)

1.    The New York Times, US (1,504,923)
2.    The Times of India, India (1,369,829)
3.    Wall Street Journal, US (337,716)
4.    Financial Times, UK (252,166)
5.    Washington Post (204,316)
6.    The Jakarta Globe (154,111)
7.    The Guardian, UK (106,270)
8.    The Los Angeles Times, US (102,619)
9.    USA Today, US (68,339)10.  The Independent, UK (58,529)
11.  The Star Online, Malaysia (38,776)
12.  The Straits Times, Singapore (36,418)
13.  The Telegraph, UK (34,829)
14.  Daily Telegraph, Australia (21,758)
15.  The Japan Times (9,744)
16.  Sydney Morning Herald, Australia (6,753)
17.  London Evening Standard, UK (4,686)
18.  International Herald Tribune (4,341) 
19.  South China Morning Post, Hong Kong (3,884)
20.  Taipei Times, Taiwan (3,545)
21.  The Australian, Australia (2,069)
22.  Bangkok Post, Thailand (1,342)
23.  Korea Herald (1,119)

Of course this is not a comprehensive survey of all the English language newspapers in the world and I did it mainly out of curiosity. Feel free to comment if you have anything more to add to this list. [Note: Special thanks to Ng Yuk-hang for her contribution]

As suggested by Simpson Cheung, here's a quick look at the "LIKEs" of major Hong Kong newspapers that have a Facebook page:


1, 蘋果日報 Apple Daily Website (159,270)
2, 蘋果日報 Apple Daily (29,842) 
3, 香港經濟日報 Hong Kong Economic Times (22,735) 
4, AM 730 (5,734)
5, 晴報 Sky Post (5,603)
6, on.cc (東方日報 Oriental Daily News) (4,434)
7, South China Morning Post (3,884)
8, 頭條日報 Headline Daily (3,738)
9, 信報財經新聞 Hong Kong Economic Journal (2,191) 
10, The Standard (618)
11, 都市日報 Metro [unofficial FB page] (420)
12, 星島日報 Sing Tao Daily (404)
13, 明報 Ming Pao [unofficial FB page] (93)
14, 東方日報 Oriental Daily News [unofficial FB page] (28)
115, 太陽報 The Sun [unofficial FB page] (3)

Someone should use such data well (LOL!) but don't forget to credit this blog when you do. I'm dead serious! !

ENDS