Pamco debuts new readership methodology in partnership with Barb
Pamco, the joint industry currency (JIC) for publishing brands, has released a new readership methodology that seeks to improve audience measurement accuracy through a partnership with Barb.
It follows a successful pilot with the TV industry JIC last year, when 15,000 participants of the 53,000 households in Barb’s Establishment Survey were asked to complete a short readership survey on behalf of Pamco.
In Pamco’s first data release with the new methodology, total market monthly reach of the combined 90 print and 83 digital brands that the organisation tracks is 49.1m. Total weekly reach is 43.8m, with daily reach of 28.9m.
While not comparable due to the change in methodology, the figures suggest broadly flat readership since 2023 and up from H1.
News brands were found to collectively have a daily readership of 24m, with print maintaining daily readership of 7m compared with 19m daily digital readers. Weekly and monthly reach totalled 38m and 45m respectively.
Pamco has not publicly released reach figures for specific publisher brands since 2020, although its subscribers are able to access the data via its website, Adwanted Connected (which is operated by The Media Leader‘s parent, Adwanted) and Bureaux.
“Whichever way you cut it, these readership numbers are huge and will be invaluable to any advertiser looking to reach engaged, loyal audiences in trusted environments,” commented Jo Allan, CEO of news publishing marketing body Newsworks.
Once the new survey data is fully integrated, every Pamco release will be based on a total sample of 30,000 individuals.
“Our collaboration with Barb represents a significant step forward in strengthening audience measurement,” said Pamco managing director Emma Holden. “By delivering a more robust and representative data sample, this partnership will provide deeper insights that benefit published media, along with their agency and advertiser partners.”
Since 2021, the publishing JIC has fused its print data with Ipsos iris online data to give advertisers a more accurate sense of publishing brand reach. The updated methodology notably applies only to print readership; digital methodology remains unchanged with Ipsos iris.
Due to the way the methodology is rolling out, Pamco will not release data based entirely on the new methodology until early 2027. This means it will not be possible to accurately derive trends due to the use of multiple methodologies until that point.
The Pamco questionnaire will continue to feed into UKOM, TGI and IPA TouchPoints, while integrating digital readership via Ipsos iris.
Barb’s collaboration has been endorsed by the IPA, Newsworks and the Professional Publishers Association. It aims to deliver an “enhanced and well-balanced” sample to better represent the evolving nature of publishing brand consumption.
Initial media agency reaction to the tie-up has been positive. Glyn Williams, director of trading and accountability at Omnicom shop PHD, called it “good news for the publishing sector” that Pamco will be able to deliver “an improved dataset” with Barb.
Craig Smith, senior director of investment at WPP Media, added: “In this ever-transforming and sometimes opaque media landscape, it is great to see published media continuing to be proactive in evolving and improving the way it captures more robust and representative readership figures.
“Published media prides itself on its gold standard of reporting measurement and Barb has long been held as the industry leader. And this partnership with Pamco will be hugely helpful in providing even greater clarity to media planners and the industry more generally.”
Fellow publishing JIC ABC also adopted a new “streamlined” measurement standard aimed at reflecting magazine titles’ digital audience shift.