Losing the war? Change the battlefield. Only to lose again.
Latest ABC numbers for newspapers just in. But don’t believe your lying eyes. We’ve got some shiney new numbers for you over here. And pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!
Love E&P’s two ledes. This on the day of the report…
CHICAGO - November 5, 2007 - Audience-FAX, a new measurement that combines newspaper circulation, readership and online audience, is not an attempt to paper over the bad news about circulation, newspaper industry figures argued Monday.
Then this, when ABC’s “what-have-we-done?” membership realized (insert frantic phone calls, angry e-mails and, “cancel-my-account” advertisers here) their new measure of audience was coming up somewhat short…
CHICAGO - November 8, 2007 - The architects of the Audit Bureau of Circulations’ (ABC) new report combining newspaper circulation with surveys of print and online readership acknowledged Thursday that its methodology puts newspapers at a disadvantage in comparison to other media audience measurements.
Skipping to the 8th graph:
ABC officials were at pains to emphasize that Audience-FAX, which has 206 participating newspapers, is a work in progress. Cohen explained: “Rather than trying to get something that would be acceptable to all 900 diverse (member) papers, we said, let’s get as much good information out there as we can, and then go from there.”
Right. Understood. “Not an attempt to paper over the bad news about circulation.” [eph. added]
