PMIRRG Announces Print Readership Tender

After being put on hold earlier this year, due to the economic downturn, The Print Media Industry Research Review Group Incorporated (PMIRRG) has announced that it is seeking research companies to tender for New Zealand Print Media Readership measurement. The period of the contract will be for a minimum of 5 years and will include consumer insights and media engagement research.

The process to get to tender has been a long one. Over the last 18 months PMIRRG, who encompass representation from advertising agencies and magazine and newspaper publishers; has been investigating international best practice into media research, innovations and technology and likely changes to customer needs over the next 5 to 10 years.

Official print readership research is currently conducted by Nielsen Media Research. 12,000 people are interviewed, face to face, on a quarterly annual rolling basis. Readership is measured via masthead recognition.

Alternative readership research is provided by Roy Morgan. Morgan use a combination of phone interviews and leave behind questionnaires to gather information, because, as the second player and in a market the size of New Zealand, the cost of conducting face to face interviews is prohibitive for them. Unlike Australia, where Roy Morgan use both recency (cover shot of most recent issue) and through the book (content within the publication) to gather information, locally readership data is gathered via a list of the researched publications being read to the respondent.

By way of a brief history lesson, Nielsen has long held the readership contract in this market. Questions about methodology Nielsen use to collect readership data were originally raised when Morgan came into the market offering an alternative approach (that being used currently in Australia, where they own the readership currency).

More recently, the changing face of media consumption, most notably in the digital space means that a key requirement is to future-proof research and adapt as required. This is an issue specifically for newspapers, who have embraced on-line publishing formats as a way of attracting younger readers whilst traditional newsprint circulations crumble. Publishers will seek to keep up with their consumers evolving needs, so the potential for unknown alternative formats, for example “electronic paper” or versions of Amazon’s Kindle, to launch in New Zealand will also need to be allowed for.

While Nielsen and Roy Morgan are the two main contenders in this market, so would seem to be the front runners, Barry Williamson, Consultant (non-voting) to PMIRRG, believes up to 7 companies, both local and international are likely to tender, in line with recent Australian experience.

Ultimately, current readership measurement has issues. It lacks dynamicism, there have been ongoing questions surrounding both Nielsen's and Morgan's methodology and it is not reflective of large scale moves by mainstream publishers into digital formats. Quarterly reporting means that there is a significant delay between research completion and availability to the advertising market. There is no allowance for daily variances in readership with newspapers, and an inability to determine the real impact of significant events or appealing cover images to readership. The flow on means print media is planned on the basis of averages, without the confidence of, for example, daily television ratings. This makes it difficult to ascertain advertising success.

Expressions of interest are required by the 13th November. The tender process will progress from there. Carat welcome this review, and look with interest to the outcome.

For further details, see the PMIRRG press release, or contact your Carat representative.