Nick Chan: Roy Morgan is like Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi but changing the trading currency borders on the ludicrous
The boss of PacMags has sent the strongest signal yet that he does not want the magazine industry to get in bed with Newspaper Works’ attempt to take control of readership figures.
The newspaper industry’s trade body announced earlier this month that it wanted to create a new currency in competition to the one run by Roy Morgan Research which includes both newspaper and magazine readership.
But Nick Chan, CEO of Pacific Magazines and chairman of industry body Magazine Publishers of Australia, told the print edition of B&T that although the research company is hard to deal with, its work is good. He said:
“It is important that we don’t confuse RMR’s unique customer service approach with the quality of the system.
“Like the Soup Nazi in Seinfeld, the service is crap but the soup is the best.”
Chan told B&T that Newspaper Works’ call for tender was “a curious process”. He said: “After an 18-month global review process, they claim to want best practice while making no mention of where the current system stands in the global arena.” He added:
“It borders on the ludicrous that while most media struggle to establish an accepted currency to measure performance, publishers whose very existence is being questioned would want to introduce yet another change.”
Roy Morgan has suggested that Newspaper Works only wants to take control of the figures on behalf of its members because they don’t like the results produced by the current system.
In the same article, Mediacom’s Nick Keenan said that agencies were “generally content with the methodology” currently used by Roy Morgan. He said: “Any research brought to market to challenge this must be independent, transparent and without an agenda.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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you’re joking me right? Best product?! Roy is an indication at best, not the holy grail
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“Publishers whose very existence is being questioned” – that’s rich coming from a PacMags CEO!!
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Gotta agree with Mandy Nick (Chan that is, not Nick ‘Crackers’ Keenan) if anyone’s existence is being threatened it’s the mag publishers and their over abundence of titles that are exactly the same as each other.
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Wisey, mandi and pete. Read the article again and this time absorb what Chan is saying. Then review your comments, then revise them. Yes Wisey RM’s is an indication, I’m sure there are a hundred other reasons you tell your clients you need to evaluate mags on like enviornment, added value etc etc but what he is saying is that against what is available elsewhere in the world it’s robust (not the holy grail). mandi, wtf read it, he’s saying the same thing, ditto pete
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hey kegs,
how about you bite me
wisey
xoxo
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