BE Asia: Readership of international publications among Asia's business elite

The Wall Street Journal has the highest reach among Asia's business elite for daily titles. The title has grown its reach from 16 per cent in 2008 to 18 per cent this year. Financial Times has enjoyed a marginally higher growth in reach of three per cent to reach 14 per cent in 2010.

Broken down by country, The Wall Street Journal has the highest daily reach in Hong Kong (21 per cent), Indonesia (28 per cent), Malaysia (21 per cent), the Philippines (29 per cent) and Thailand (12 per cent). The Financial Times tops the table in Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

Among international titles published weekly, Time has the highest reach of 23 per cent, growing one per cent since 2008. Newsweek and Yazhou Zhoukan have both grown two per cent to 21 per cent and 6 per cent respectively since 2008. Business week has decreased its reach from 18 per cent to 16 per cent this year.

The Economist enjoys the highest reach in Hong Kong (27 per cent), Singapore (27 per cent) and South Korea (16 per cent); Newsweek in Indonesia (30 per cent) and Malaysia (27 per cent); and Time in the Philippines (50 per cent), Thailand (19 per cent) and Taiwan (13 per cent tied with Yazhou Zhoukan).

Fortnightly titles Fortune and Forbes both have a high reach among the business elite in Asia with 20 per cent and 18 per cent respectively. Fortune has grown its reach with two per cent and Forbes one per cent over the last three years.

Apart from Indonesia where the titles are tied at 23 per cent, Fortune has the highest reach in Hong Kong (21 per cent), Malaysia (26 per cent), the Philippines (33 per cent), Taiwan (6 per cent) and Thailand (16 per cent). Forbes is the top fortnightly title in Singapore (28 per cent) and South Korea (17 per cent).

National Geographic has the highest reach with 22 per cent of all monthly titles despite a drop in reach of one per cent over the last three years. The title has the highest reach in Hong Kong (23 per cent), Indonesia (22 per cent), Thailand (23 per cent) and Malaysia (33 per cent) where it is tied with Readers Digest (English). Readers Digest (Chinese) has seen the highest growth of three per cent since 2008. The title's English version has dropped its reach from 21 per cent in 2008 to 19 per cent this year despite having the higest reach in the Phillipines (55 per cent), Singapore (31 per cent) and Malaysia (33 per cent).

Asiamoney has the highest reach in South Korea (18 per cent) and Taiwan (16 per cent).

*During 2010 fieldwork Fortune's frequency of publication changed to 18 times a year.

**During 2010 fieldwork Forbes' frequency of publication changed from fortnightly to monhtly.

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Methodology

The results are based on a sample 7,418 respondents to represent the business elite universe of 236,858. The fieldwork period is from November 2009 to June 2010, covering Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

Qualifying establishments are sampled from business directories from which eligible individuals are identified by telephone screening. Media consumption is measured through a self-completed questionnaire administered by mail.