New audience measurement tool for publishers launched

The Published Audience Measurement Company (PAMCo) has launched the industry’s new audience measurement “currency”, which enables users to look at audience delivery across all publisher platforms for the first time.

PAMCo - Audience Measurement for Publishers uses the latest passive measurement techniques, together with 35,000 high-quality face-to-face interviews, giving a single, de-duplicated view of publishers’ audiences across all content platforms.

PAMCo said the new joint industry currency (JIC), launched yesterday (19 April) has the capacity and flexibility to respond to the evolution of published content, accommodating new titles and multiple platforms, enabling it to keep pace with digital developments and changing consumer habits.

“NRS has been the industry currency and reporting readership numbers for what was the press industry – magazines and newspapers – for about 60 years,” PAMCo chief executive Simon Redican told PrintWeek.

“Three years ago, there was a review of the requirements that found that while NRS was great for a print world, PAMCo is a currency for today’s industry, that now calls itself the published media industry.

“UK newspapers and magazines basically put their content out on whatever platform people want to read it on and we measure it across all those platforms.

“The biggest single platform for newspapers and magazines is still press – the industry is big on all of the platforms and the print part of it is still hugely important, people are still buying and reading newsprint in huge numbers.”

He added:The point of PAMCo is to say that there’s a huge diversity of business approaches for different publishers. Some have chosen a mixed model and want to be available on every platform that’s available while others have gone digital-only.

“It doesn’t really matter, what’s important is the size of the audience that’s being measured and the strength of the editorial brand that people are reading about.”

Redican said 91% of consumers view publisher content across all platforms, with the reach among young audiences particularly high, with 93% of 15-34 year olds viewing published content each month.

PAMCo is funded by UK national publishers represented by the News Media Association (NMA) and the Professional Publishers Association (PPA) together with the agency customer body, the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA). PAMCo also has board representation from the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA).

By allowing users to look at audience delivery across all publisher platforms – phone, tablet, desktop and print – for the first time, PAMCo said the utility unlocks the huge audiences consuming publisher content on phone and tablet devices, which were not previously visible on the NRS.

This opens up new opportunities to plan and trade the audiences drawn to the content produced by UK publishers.

Time Inc chief executive Marcus Rich said: “Agencies have long sought to access our brands and audiences across all of our platforms with one single buy – PAMCo data now provides them with a robust rationale to justify inclusion of all publisher platforms to their clients to the benefit of all.”