NAB's Leo Bogart Dies at 84

Leo Bogart, director and senior consultant of the Detroit-based Innovation International Media Consulting Group and longtime executive of the Newspaper Advertising Bureau, died Saturday, Oct. 15. He was 84.

A sociologist, Bogart specialized in marketing and media research. The author of 11 books, he traveled widely and was proficient in eight languages.

In addition to his work at the Bureau of Advertising at the American Newspaper Publishers Association (which became the NAB and, in 1992, merged with the ANPA to form the Newspaper Association of America), Bogart also had been an adjunct professor at New York University and taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology and Columbia University, where he was a senior fellow at the Center for Media Studies and a Fulbright research fellow.

Bogart also served on the 12-member judging panel for the annual James K. Batten Knight Ridder Excellence Awards.

Earlier in his career, Bogart directed public opinion research for what is now ExxonMobil, marketing research for Revlon, and account research for McCann-Erickson Inc.

Bogart's books ranged from advertising, propaganda, and public opinion to the press and television. His most recent, ""Over the Edge,"" published in January, is subtitled, ""How the pursuit of youth by marketers and media has changed American culture."" He continued penning a column for the NAA's Presstime magazine through summer of this year.

""He was the force behind all the newspaper research"" until his retirement in the late 1980s, said a colleague who began working with Bogart more than 40 years ago. The coworker, who asked not to be named and has been out of the business for a number of years, credited Bogart with several ""firsts,"" both big and small.

At the NAB, Bogart's use of the number of adults who read a newspaper yesterday has become the industry's standard measure. ""He did that because of his sensitivity to advertising and advertisers,"" said his former colleague.

Also at the bureau, said the same source, Bogart was the first to undertake ""big experimental field studies"" designed to see if and how readers changed their attitudes and buying behavior in responses to published advertising. The study involved the use of ""fake"" ad pages distributed to six big dailies across the country that ""demonstrated that non-sale ads worked.""

At a smaller scale, for example, Bogart examined reasons residents of a small city between two larger cities chose to read one or the other big-city dailies.

Bogart's former colleague added that all his studies were found valid upon review by the Advertising Research Federation, and that whether working for newspapers or advertisers, his methods were sound and his findings never ""sugar-coated.""

Others remembered much the same. Despite his ""love of the newspaper business,"" said Jules Tewlow, Bogart remained ""realistic about it.""

Tewlow, who knew Bogart for about 20 years, said Bogart was well aware of newspapers' declining fortunes. ""He was frustrated and angry because he didn't know what to do about it,"" said the former New York Times Co., ANPA, and Lee Enterprises executive.

""Leo had a profound impact on research in the industry,"" said newspaper industry researcher and economist Miles Groves, adding that, ""unfortunately,"" there is no one in the same position today. Groves called him ""insightful"" and said Bogart ""empowered a lot of people"" to conduct research and publish their findings.

When Groves joined the Bureau in 1989, he remembered, Bogart was wary of the ""new guy,"" but became Groves' research mentor. Eventually, Bogart would send his Presstime submissions to Groves for review, even though he would not let the magazine edit his column -- ""the proudest moment for me,"" said Groves.

Bogart served as president of the American and World Associations for Public Opinion Research, Society for Consumer Psychology, Market Research Council, and Radio and Television Research Council, and as a director of the American Marketing Association, American Advertising Federation, Advertising Research Foundation, and Center for Applied Linguistics.

He and George Gallup were the first to be elected to the Market Research Council Hall of Fame.