Surveys on businessmen will get kicked into the long grass
Paper Boy – the irreverent insider
Apologies to regular readers of this column for not writing about the August ABC’s or letting you know that I was having a short break. I suppose we could have got a guest substitute like they do for Clarkson when he is in Barbados… “Jeremy Clarkson is away”… but if the truth be told I couldn’t find anyone appropriate (or mad enough) to fill my shoes.
Talking of Clarkson, it was only a few weeks ago that he penned a glowing defence of his newspaper bosses in his Sunday Times column. Knowing what we know now, do you think he is going to write part two in the ensuing weeks? No? Nor do I.
Yesterday, we saw the release of the biennial British Business Survey (conducted by Ipsos MORI). Biennial was the original aim but it now seems to be every three years, when the main guarantors can agree to fund it. This survey seeks to determine the purchasing power of Britain’s business community and convince us that the way to reach them is through national newspapers and business magazines. Well it should, seeing as the guarantors (or the companies that pay for the survey to be conducted) are Times Newspapers, the FT and the Economist.
Not so long ago the other quality newspapers used to be guarantors too – until they slowly pulled out one by one. First, The Independent – recording a smaller and smaller business audience and blaming their ever tightening budget belt.
Then The Telegraph – who 15 years ago was the top national daily newspaper for business readers – saw The Times narrow the gap, take over and increase its lead. The Telegraph‘s rationale for pulling out was that the survey was no longer representative of a true business audience and didn’t cover enough businessmen aged 65 plus… seriously!
The Guardian kept with the survey, finding a larger share of voice at a diminishing table – adeptly able to negotiate changes in the survey audience to enhance its position. Basically, including more job codes for teachers and doctors… but now even The Guardian has fallen by the wayside, realising its money is best spent elsewhere.
Times Newspapers is still in and why shouldn’t it be – it has the leading titles for the audience in the daily and Sunday market? Pearson (FT and 50% of The Economist) also sees the BBS as a key study, albeit covering the lowest segment of their overall business audience. The other studies they support are more elitist, more specialised or more ‘pan-the-world’.
Previous studies have been fan-fared in at Wapping with normal arrogance – waiting for the millions of business-targeted advertising money to fly through the window and sticking two fingers up (quite literally) at their rivals (and survey co-sponsors).
And on the same day, YouGov released the results from its business panel (great timing by the research company!) – trumpeting headlines that the Daily Telegraph was the paper of choice for business people.
It’s no surprise we have different results. Different samples, different methodologies and different commercial imperatives.
I wonder whether The Telegraph sponsored the YouGov study and its guerrilla release on the same day as Ipsos’ less than agile business survey?
However, the real question is how many businessmen answer research questions? Let alone spend an hour filling in a questionnaire!
So what should we believe? That their media habits are generally consistent for time-poor individuals… yes. That the relative rankings of the publications looks intuitive… yes. That they are early adopters of new technology such as Smart TVs… yes.
Anyway, my reckoning is that the BBS may sadly be not long for this world. Another two years waiting for the next survey – it will probably be three or four – with fieldwork lagging six to nine months before publication and the results still being used four years after the survey first went into the field. How relevant can this tool be?
By the time the next survey comes out, will The Guardian still be in printed form? Now that GN&M aim to be fully in the digital world, it seems they are hurtling towards the end of the printed version with gay abandonment. The closing of the Media Guardian section and the imminent cover price rise (at a premium to their rivals) will again diminish the little circulation that they have. Yes, all of us media luvvies enjoyed their relentless pursuit of the phone hacking saga, but not enough to buy it regularly to stabilise circulation.
But newspapers still hold great significance for us as consumers and for us as media people. For most people working in newspapers it is still a fun place to be – although one or two I meet these days seem half the people they used to be.
A colleague of mine played in an industry golf day the other week. It was won by a newspaper executive. He claimed a 28 handicap (for non-golfers, this is the maximum allowable) and produced enough points to carry off the trophy. No beef with that but he also won the longest drive competition. Everyone I spoke to has never witnessed a maximum handicapper win the longest drive. The two things together are counter intuitive… but then again newspaper people need to get any edge to stand still.
Your Comments
The comments refer to the decline in circulations amongst titles. But is readership of business people declining at the same rate as overall readership? Or faster or slower? Job for NMA here?
And exactly what is a ‘business person’ in the 2nd decade of 21st century? Certainly not the definition that this survey can trace its ancestry back to. Despite the economy flattening out business is being done using an enormous range of communications platforms. There may not be a case for a survey that a carries a whiff of rolled umbrellas and bowler hats on one side and wide suited loads of money lads on the other. But there is certainly a case for a survey that measures what media modern business men and women use to survive and thrive into today’s world.
But sponsored by? Well, some of these same papers have been known to have a website or two. So perhaps you need to decide what is the cart and what is the horse these days. Put some money up and use some of it for closed question research about your on and offline brand, rather than just the paper product version. And how about all those social media site owners? Just as the web is turning into its twenties, then so are your audiences. That school kid on Facebook is now leaving uni. How is this generation using digital in the business world? But as Paper Boy implies, do it now, before it is too late.
Thanks for the responses and comments, it is always good to initiate some debate.
Firstly, I had no intention of gloating as I did moot that the survey “may sadly be not long for this world”.
In fact, a close colleague of mine spent many years at one of the newspapers keeping the BBS survey alive by helping to persuade the other newspaper groups that the survey was good news overall for the national newspaper market.
The column was rather more a reflection of how quick, easy (and cheaper) research is threatening industry-sponsored surveys – which is a much bigger debate for another time.
Sadly (again) I too think I might have been around for that RSL 1996 golf day… But for those of you who weren’t, here is a reminder of Richard’s perfectly-formed longest drive:
Paper Boy’s comments regarding the demise of the BBS may prove to be true this time but similar predictions have been made for many years in the past and have failed to be accurate. And is it really necessary for him to gloat over the demise of an industry survey that so many people work so hard to fund and to produce for the benefit of the industry as a whole?
It certainly doesn’t reflect well on him to draw aspersions regarding the performance of the golfer in question – a popular figure around the industry, as it happens. Apart from the fact that the handicap system is designed to give everyone an equal chance of winning, I too can produce a Longest Drive trophy from the ‘RSL Open’ in 1996. Then, as now, I was crap – playing off 28. But every dog has his day, especially if he is playing with others who may not exactly be scratch golfers and who may, on that very day, have trouble keeping it on the fairway – a pre-requisite for such an award.
All in all it sounds like someone’s got out of bed the wrong side quite a lot recently.