SMH and The Age take digital ratings hit following Nielsen withdrawal
The impact of Fairfax Media’s decision to withdraw from Nielsen’s digital content ratings (DCR) has been felt by its online mastheads, with sessions per person and time spent on site noticeably declining for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in February.
Although the SMH’s unique audience remained relatively stable – an audience of 3.913m compared to 3.910m in January – sessions per person reduced from 12 to seven, and time spent on site fell from one hour, nine minutes and 43 seconds to 43 minutes and 30 seconds.
Meanwhile The Age’s audience – which dipped from 2.098m in January to 2.042m in February (-2.6%) – saw more notable changes in its sessions and time spent. Sessions per person fell from 12.83 to 6.26, and time spent fell from 46 minutes 17 seconds to 32 minutes and nine seconds.
It’s fairly obvious the Nielsen results would report decline given they no longer measure the Fairfax mastheads. Hardly headline worthy. If Australia had a reporting methodology that worked and reflected the steps forward publishers are taking, then advertisers could be more sure of the audience they are buying. Good on Fairfax for being bold enough to take a stance and try to move the industry forward!
The decrease in engagement is clearly a result of Nielsen’s inability to actually measure SMH and the Age at the channel level. They both have switched to HTTPs which cannot measure any activity beyond the landing page. Naturally reach would stay level and engagement metrics such as sessions and time spent will decrease for the simple reason that they are no longer being measured or reported on.