Review: Mags and papers fall out over readership; TV networks turn shy; Clarke says he’s not a sellout
If Newspaper Works hoped that its attempted takeover of readership figures from Roy Morgan was going to happen quietly, then that one died today.
Today’s Media section of The Australian focuses on the magazine industry’s response to newspaper owners’ plan to launch their own readership currency. Up to now, the Roy Morgan survey has covered both magazine and newspaper readership.
“At the moment, the print media’s future is being questioned by a whole bunch of advertisers. I don’t need the added responsibility of spending 15 minutes within a 30-minute pitch explaining methodology.”
If the newspaper companies want to invest in research that more accurately reflects how their audience is consuming their medium (off & online), and perhaps more importantly, are prepared to share it more openly with their commercial customers then good on ’em, I say.
I’m not convinced that the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” thinking that is reflected in a “by and large” happiness with the existing model, will cut much mustard with customers if the proposed new research provides a better and hopefully more transparent understanding of a traditional medium’s usage in a digital age. Perhaps the existing research is even one of the reasons why the print media’s future is being questioned by advertisers….. ?
We will always remain a cynical industry when it comes to media owner funded research, but given how much the newpaper medium appears to be suffering from the GFC, then perhaps their efforts to drive change should be applauded.
In desperate times, doing something may be better than doing nothing. Of course only time wil tell….
There appears to be some confusion about whether it is unusual to have seperate magazine and newspaper readership surveys.
For the record, it is unusual.
The last “Summary of Current Readership Research” last compiled in 2007 by Erhard Meier which covers survey practices of 95 readership surveys in 72 countries worldwide shows only 2 countrys that could be considered to have split print audience measurement currencies.
One of these is Japan which currently measures 522 consumer titles on its magazine survey and 118 titles on its newspaper survey. It is for this reason ( the vast number of titles and subsequent length of survey) I believe that they have split currencies.