ABC Panel Touches on Transparency, Day-of-Week Circ Reports

By: Jennifer Saba Most of today's panel discussion hosted by the Audit Bureau of Circulations involved the goings-on in the magazine world. But newspapers should take note: Many of the reports and issues kicked around will eventually hit the industry (if they haven't already).

ABC rounded up six members for its panel on evolving media metrics during Advertising Week here in New York. There was only one representative from a newspaper company, Todd Haskell, vice president of business development for The New York Times media group. The panel also included three prominent media buyers: Craig Desens, COO of Newspaper Services of America (NSA), George Janson, managing partner, director of print at Mediaedge:cia, and Robin Steinberg, senior vice president, director of print investment at MediaVest USA.

There was a tug about the issue of transparency -- the agencies and advertisers who want it, the publishers who are afraid of too much visibility.

For newspapers, transparency falls squarely on the new day of week reporting, which reveals circulation every day of the week as opposed to averages. "Any time you open your kimono the more exposed you feel," quipped Haskell. "We are all anxious to see how the ad community will react."

That boogieman is the massive swings in circulation that occur at some newspapers: Depending on the day, the number could differ by thousands of copies. That in turn, could cause advertisers to drop certain days (goodbye Tuesdays!) or as Haskell pointed out, put enormous pressure on rates.

MediaVest's Steinberg assured the panel and audience that nothing changes because there is more information available. "We just know what's behind the curtain," she said. "We need to work together in a partnership to understand what it means for ROI."

There certainly was an "us" versus "them" mentality at the session about, to use the vernacular of teens, the issue of TMI -- too much information. Publishers were concerned that by giving advertisers more data, quickly, they would use it against them.

Hence the back-and-forth on the usefulness of the rapid report, a new tool ABC rolled out this summer for consumer magazines that tracks top-line circulation on an issue-by-issue basis within weeks. (Newspapers could be next on deck for the voluntary report.)

"We are not going to change our [media] plans if you use ABC's rapid report. We need timely accurate information," Steinberg said.

Haskell also brought up the subject of other paid circulation and the movement of publishers to cut back on hotel, employee, Newspapers In Education (NIE), and third party copies. "We question it all the time," he said, asking if a paper is in a hotel room does that mean it's read?

Online metrics made its way into the conversation. The NSA?s Desens said he would like to see more consistency in the reporting methods used to track print and online readership. Newspapers, he says, are typically measured on a ?read yesterday? basis while online is tracked on a monthly cum. There?s a need to root out duplication.