World’s Largest Print Engagement Study

The Readership Works has unveiled its latest print audience analysis tool for 189 Australian printed magazines and newspapers, which is designed to “pull apart” publications and showcase the unique relationship each publication has with its readers.

The development of the EQ (Engagement Quotient) within the EMMA metric aims to “significantly change the way in which print is bought and sold,” Mal Dale, general manager of The Readership Works, said at a media briefing.

With a study size of 20,000, the new survey is the largest ever undertaken of print audiences anywhere the world. All respondents were 14 years or older.

The engagement metric will look into five different areas of engagement with a print publication; source, loyalty, motivation, connection and actions. However the five headline sections can be broken down further, leading to 16 different attributes the metric will measure every title against.

“What we’ve found is the data really pulls titles apart and you can really understand the different interplays titles have with different audiences,” Simon Wake, managing director at Ipsos MediaCT, said at the briefing.

“Audience size in itself is a bit of a blunt measure, but it’s an important measure,” Wake added.

“What this provides is this next layer down, this deeper understanding of the emotional attachment that readers have with certain titles, the behaviours that they operate within … also it provides a real understanding in the context and the editorial environment and how people interact with those titles.

“This only works if it provides agencies and advertisers with a better way to target audiences. That’s the core of this… and to provide the basis for better investment decisions for advertisers.”

The EQ measure is likened to a profiling tool, the unique DNA of each publication, regardless of audience size.

“It’s an index based representation of engagement across all these dimensions,” Adam Hodgson, research and operations director at Ipsos, said.

The average score for publications across the various engagement axes is 100, so the release of Fairfax Media’s first lot of EQ scores show its publications rating higher in different areas than its competitors.

The Australian Financial Review both had its highest scores for the weekday and weekend edition in the ‘Enriched’ section which falls under the ‘Connection’ section, as can be seen above.

The Sydney Morning Herald’s weekday edition scored highest in the ‘enriched’ section, with its weekend paper seeing its highest EQ score in the ‘Consider’ section’ which is found in the ‘Action’ engagement axis.

See below for the full table of Fairfax’s titles, obtained from the press release.

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Interior newspapers Office The Australian