Toronto global media study shows Rob Ford story has raised Toronto's international profile by one-third and tripled its negative exposure

TORONTO, Nov. 20, 2013 /CNW/ - A new study measuring the global media exposure of Toronto released today highlighted the negative impact on the city's brand around the world that the Rob Ford scandal is having. The study conducted by Cormex Research found that the City of Toronto's total global audience exposure in newspapers was up by over 31% by November 15, 2013, compared to the same time last year.  Toronto's tone of coverage was also deteriorating rapidly, as the city's share of negative exposure climbed from 12% in 2012 to 26% in 2013. The Rob Ford story accounted for 60% of total negative media exposure. "Toronto's brand globally is hip and smart, generated by its cultural industries such as TIFF and performers such as Drake, and its education and research organizations like the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Kids," remarked Andrew Laing, author of the study and director of the company's MediaLAB project. "Now there's a new narrative - bad political governance - and its quickly overtaking the good-news story that is Toronto globally."

The study also examined major digital news sites such as theguardian.com and bbc.co.uk, US cable news coverage, and commentary about Toronto on Twitter from users in eight different countries.  "The results point to an even bigger impact of Rob Ford on digital media and television, where the story's elements of hourly developments, a constant flow of new video and a polarizing character around which to build a narrative are attracting more and more global media to the scandal," added Laing.

The full report is published on the Cormex MediaLAB website. For more information, go to www.cormex.com/medialab.

About Cormex Research
Cormex Research is Canada's leading media research firm, serving the country's top private, public and non-profit sector organizations since 1989.

SOURCE: Cormex Research

Andrew Laing
[email protected]
416.504.8236 x2001
www.cormex.com