Research company claims magazine figures 'ridiculous'

By SIMON HENDERY media writer

Research company Roy Morgan has taken a swipe at competitor Nielsen Media Research, claiming some magazine readership figures circulated by the media rating heavyweight are "ridiculous".

But the claim has washed over the publishing and advertising industries, which appear happy with Nielsen's methodologies.

Roy Morgan executive chairman Gary Morgan said Nielsen data was inflated by "replication" - readers re-reading the same magazine - and confusion over titles.

He cited the example of NZ Woman's Day (circulation 146,237) and the NZ Woman's Weekly (101,397).

According to Nielsen figures, Woman's Day's estimated readership is 812,000, or 9 per cent less that the Woman's Weekly's 893,000, despite its circulation being 44 per cent higher.

Morgan also queried Nielsen figures which indicated very high "pass-on" rates for some publications, including the English Woman's Weekly, each copy of which Nielsen says is read by 17 readers, Auto Trader (18 readers per copy) and TV Hits (23).

He said these type of figures were "silly - you just can't have 10 or 20 readers per copy - that's just ridiculous".

Part of the problem related to reader confusion over magazine titles. Many of those who told researchers they had read the English Woman's Weekly had probably actually read the NZ Woman's Weekly.

A press release from Morgan this week included the suggestion that New Zealand advertisers and agencies would be better off using Roy Morgan readership estimates.

Ironically, Roy Morgan's methodologies for measuring readership have come under fire from some publishers in Australia.

Nielsen Media Research declined to comment on specific figures, but group executive director Nick Jones, said the company "measures a publication's entire life cycle, which inherently includes current and previous issues. This means a comparison between circulation and readership is very difficult".

Jones said Nielsen and the publishing industry had invested considerable time and effort working together to establish a world's best practice readership survey.

"The methodology employed is widely regarded as the gold standard for readership measurement. This survey forms the currency for planning and buying print in New Zealand."

The executive director of the Magazine Publishers Association, John McClintock, said when the industry had raised concerns about aspects of its methodology, Nielsen had responded with changes.

Mike Howard of media company Carat, who is also deputy chair of the Communication Agencies Association's media committee, said Roy Morgan had been trying to break into the New Zealand market for over 10 years but only a few agencies subscribed to its services.

"There is always going to be a degree of debate about methodology but it is fair to say that there is a very large degree of acceptance of the methodology of the [Nielsen] currency. It has been accepted as the norm for an awful long time."