The National Readership Survey (NRS) is making good progress as it adapts to the rapid changes taking place in the press but it will have to stay focused as the media landscape changes and people turn to the internet and mobile platforms.
This was one of the main themes from yesterday’s Future Of The National Press seminar, where, speaking from the floor, Simon Marquis, chairman of the NRS, confirmed that going online is a long-term strategy for the body, saying that a lot of things the NRS is unable to do now “will be enabled by this new technology”. He added: “What if the NRS were to go online? We’re very keen on this as a long-term strategic answer. When is it going to be appropriate and how is it going to be appropriate are two different matters. I want there to be very little doubt that is the ultimate destination because I think it is going to do really good things for the press media and its users.”
Some of the panelists did show concern at the thought of the survey going online, particularly with regard to the truthfulness of respondents when not face to face with an interviewer. However, Stuart Taylor, commercial director for Guardian Newspapers Ltd, was broadly in favour of the direction the NRS is taking, saying “it’s trying to adapt to a changing media landscape.”
Also from the floor, Roger Pratt, managing director of the NRS, said: “We’re not proposing at the moment to change the definition of a reader, but we are proposing to renew time spent reading data to reinforce the sensible-ness of our definition of readership. I’m hoping we will be able to demonstrate with the new data that there is a considerable amount of time spent reading.”
Marquis also added that after a survey of the industry, NRS had received an “unequivocal ‘yes we need the NRS but we would like it to change’ and that is what we have been engaged in doing. The NRS is not broken, there are a number of very good things about the NRS.”
Panelist Ray Snoddy’s comments on the inconsistencies between NRS and ABC figures, highlighted in the MediaTelINSIGHT report on the future of the press, made clear some of the changes that will be needed as the NRS evolves.
There is a 28 page report on the future of the press available from MediaTel INSIGHT www.mediatelinsight.co.uk/reports (free to all INSIGHT subscribers), which includes long-term trends for national newspaper circulation and readership, as well as the latest advertising revenue and circulation forecasts and an analysis of current marketplace dynamics.
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