News Corp Australia has announced it is pulling out of the Audited Media Association of Australia’s (AMAA), Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) and Circulation Audit Board (CAB), effective immediately. Instead, it will use Enhanced Media Metrics Australia (EMMA) as its sole audience measure.
The decision to use EMMA as the primary measurement metric apparently follows an extensive review with more than 100 advertisers and media agencies that highlighted that the existing print circulation metric is no longer a representative measure of today’s cross-platform audiences.
Announcing the decision, News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said: “We have consulted with and listened to our advertiser and media agency partners and it is clear that circulation is not an indicator of how media is consumed today, and is out of step with how the advertising industry now operates.
“Media buyers and advertisers plan media based on the audience that engages with our mastheads, not the number of papers sold.
“Total audience is the chosen metric that our advertisers and media buyers now use to make their media buying decisions and to compare alternatives across all main media, so it’s a natural course of action for us to meet the market by using one, primary metric.”
The January to June 2017 circulation audit was the last for News Corp Australia.
EMMA’s total cross-platform audience readership shows a single view of both digital (PC, smartphone and tablet) and print audiences to provide accurate, monthly readership as measured by Ipsos. The metric is independently audited and draws from a survey base of more than 40,000 Australians every month.
Miller said: “As the industry’s independent and accredited cross-platform audience insights survey, EMMA provides the most complete picture of readership today.
“We have therefore decided to adopt EMMA as our primary audience metric, given that it captures total audience – not just the number of copies printed and sold. Emma has the sophistication, depth, credibility and frequency to provide an accurate and complete picture of our audiences.”
EMMA was introduced in 2013 as a single source media and consumer insights survey with a diverse range of variables including demographics, media consumption, lifestyles, psychographics and a comprehensive range of product and service insights.
It is conducted by Ipsos, a global leader in audience measurement solutions. Ipsos conducts more than 40 media surveys across the globe, including the National Readership Survey (NRS) in the UK. Each month the Emma data in Australia is fused with the industry accredited Nielsen Digital Ratings Monthly data to provide a total audience metric.
“We are committed to seeing our titles grow and thrive. As news is consumed across many platforms and our audiences grow and evolve, our measurement must give a complete audience picture,” Miller said.
“Agencies and advertisers want transparency, accuracy and a higher frequency of data as well as accountability for investment, all of which EMMA delivers.”
