EMMA’s readership survey is more than ‘good news and stability’
In this guest post, EMMA boss Brian Hogan responds to Mumbrella’s article on the looming end of magazine audits in Australia.
Your opinion piece on the announcement that Bauer and News Life Media would cease supporting the publication of circulation data raised some valid questions about the EMMA (Enhanced Media Metrics Australia) survey and audience surveys, more broadly. I would like to help inform the debate by responding.
If, I understand it correctly, the heart of your narrative appears to be a concern about the lack of clarity on how readership data is defined and sourced and that it does not represent a “true reader” of a magazine. A further concern is that the methodology inevitably delivers stability and “good news” to publishers.
Let me share with you the survey participation process and the question put to participants in the EMMA survey.
EMMA has been around for years now and yet hardly anyone trades on it. Why could this be?
Couldn’t be because they are claiming increases in readership for a number of titles (today it’s The Oz, Financial Review, Age, and West Australian) that clearly all have print circulations that are tanking could it?
Yeah but no but yeah but no.
How many copies did you sell? And at what price did you sell them?
Readership, and especially that from EMMA (exaggerated mainly myopic audiences) should very much be a downstream consideration.
This is better than 24 hours with Kerwin Rae, please Mumbrella keep the satire up…brilliant stuff.
“You may quibble about the definition of time spent reading – but it is the internationally accepted standard for readership surveys including the NRS (National Readership Survey) in the UK. The response to the above question will deliver a very accurate estimate of readership of each and every magazine surveyed.”
So, the entire world is using a useless system, not just Australia.
2 freakin’ minutes? ?? Give me a break!
Many would like to see the circulation figures too, I note in the UK magazines are still audited by ABC.
Is this the EMMA that claimed a third of teenagers _never_ watch TV ?
Heh.
Let’s face it – surveys like these only serve to make heritage brands look better to their media buyers. They won’t be able to play this game for long… the clock is ticking for formats that can’t provide (or don’t like to publicise) digital statistics.