NRS and TGI – “More Questions Than Answers”

Christina Hartley of IPC Weeklies used a “soap-box” session at the conference to query the validity of NRS and TGI readership data – and in particular the differences between the two surveys. Using examples from Now magazine and TV & Satellite Week which showed significant discrepancies in total audience and audience composition respectively, she asked a series of questions:

Does NRS undervalue press readership data? Why is TGI weighted to the NRS? Are readerships of new titles underestimated on NRS? Which industry survey should I believe and when?

Roger Pratt, MD of NRS emphasised that the NRS was “specifically designed as a readership survey, the TGI is not primarily a readership survey”. He conceded that the weighting variables could be re-examined, but stressed that the surveys used very different methods (NRS – face-to-face computer-aided questionnaire, TGI – self-completion).

Commenting to MediaTel Newsline afterwards, John Billett summarised much of the debate quite succinctly – “it would be a worry if different research produced the same answers.”