Research into readership of newspapers’ sections is to be undertaken by a joint initiative between Express Newspapers, Leo Burnett and the Central Office of Information, (C.O.I.).
The three organisations have joined forces to commission independent research into what they call “this neglected area”; it will cover both Saturday and Sunday mid-market and quality newspapers and their sections.
The project aims to provide: * Readership of newspaper magazines, review sections and other separately printed sections * How these sections are read and used, and the level of readers’ involvement with them. Specifically, the research will provide:
* specific issue readership
* frequency of reading
* proportion read
* time spent reading
* depth of readership
* overall impression of individual sections
Christine Costello, Group Advertisement Director of Express Newspapers was eager to take the chance to quell industry criticism against newspapers; “There has been a lot of scepticism in the market about media owners wanting to conduct research into sections, and I am pleased that we can now prove that it was unfounded.”
The research, which will be conducted as face to face interviews will take place during the summer by the Beck Consultancy. Results of the project will be announced in the autumn. The National Readership Survey has been under pressure to provide section readership for some time; research agencies were appointed in February last year to investigate qualitative research, and topic of interest questions.
The NRS told MediaTel today that they have now had a formal request from the Newspaper Publishers Association for section readership data, and that at the last board meeting, held on 23 June, RSL and their consultant Michael Brown, are both looking into developing a way to measure review sections.
Rupert Steele, Leo Burnett: 0171 591 9501 NRS: 0171 379 0344
