The third and final major publisher of print products in Australia has just confirmed that it too will be withdrawing from the Audited Media Association of Australia (AMAA), joining the likes of News Corp’s magazine division and Bauer Media.

Pacific CEO Gereurd Roberts said the decision was made to allow Pacific to continue to evolve alongside the requirements of advertisers and agencies.

Roberts said, “Our brands have transformed and so too have our partner expectations. We’re being asked to deliver more granular, audience-based, crossplatform measures that better reflect how consumers interact with our brands, and the integrated solutions our clients require.

“The AMAA is a highly-regarded organisation and has been a valuable partner, however the circulation metric is no longer representative of our multi-faceted audiences, or our multi-faceted offering, and given the withdrawal of the other major publishers, is no longer representative of our industry.”

Pacific will now deliver its third-party print metrics via Roy Morgan and also through Ipsos, and will continue working with Nielsen in developing its digital audience measurement tools. The AMAA measures actual sales of magazines over the EMMA data which measures readership.

Obviously with sales of magazines in decline the AMAA data often proves a real misery for publishers attempting to attract dwindling advertisers. Conversely, the EMMA data, which often shows multiple readers for a single title, delivers a more compelling argument.

Pacific is also continuing to engage with the AMAA on alternative and proposed measurements they are currently developing across platforms.

“Pacific is absolutely committed to providing accurate and transparent audience measurement. Granular audience-first, cross-platform metrics are where the market is demanding our focus, and reflects what we see as the future for our evolving, dynamic brands,” Roberts added.

Following News Corp’s withdrawal, the AMAA released a statement from CEO Josanne Ryan, which said, “We are disappointed that the lead magazine groups have made a decision to move away from providing the audited circulation data, however it is now up to marketers and agencies to determine what data points they require to ensure they have trusted metrics on which to invest advertising.”

You can read the rest of this statement here.