Audience Measurement System Development Advances to Phase Two

The advisory group set up by the UK media publishing sector announced today (Thursday) that the first round of bids into cross-platform engagement measurement was complete, Newsworks has said.

The advisory group consisting of UK newspaper and magazine publishers, in collaboration with agencies and advertisers had whittled down the large number of proposals to four main bids. These four bids would be looked at in further detail over the coming months with the aim for the new system to be in place in 2016.

The new audience measurement system for published media brands would cover all major routes to market print, mobile, tablets, PCs and laptops. Richard Marks, media consultant, explained in Newsworks’ Influence book published yesterday the need for this change in measurement. “Newsbrands are content creators – as opposed to online aggregators – so there is a need to move beyond simple head counting to demonstrate and quantify the value of the relationship and its benefit for advertisers.   

“Newsbrands haven’t just been gradually substituting print purchasers with online access: those titles freely available on the web are experiencing quite dizzying growth in coverage, far outstripping their legacy print circulations.

“Research for newsbrands has to lead the way in coming to terms not just with cross-platform measurement but also measurement of engagement beyond simple ‘time spent reading’. The very act of reading demands attention and it may be that the attention required to read – people do not put a newspaper on in the background’ – heightens the value of newsbrands to advertisers.”

Newsworks has published a series of interviews with national newspaper editors from the Influence book on its website today. 

Chairman of the advisory group Jed Glanvill said: “The advisory group has been impressed by the expertise and credentials of the firms responding to the Request for Proposals and we look forward to agreeing the solution that best captures the multi-platform nature of today’s publishing industry.”