“It will give greater profile to subscriber studies, so there will be more clout within the buying community,” says John Payne, senior vice president of strategic planning for ABC.
ABC will charge ad agencies for the data, similar in content to a number of other research studies, but “research firms vary in terms of competence” says Payne. The new ABC reports will provide comparable information magazine by magazine and, in their readership surveys, magazines will have to follow ABC’s stringent guidelines to generate the data that ABC audits.
