To order any of the books listed below, please fax or e-mail Sandy Burdett at the Secretariat sandy@pdrf.net/new_site, tel: +44 (0)20 8861 8030, fax: +44 (0)20 8861 8008 or 8861 5515

Summary of current readership research

The new report is the fourteenth edition of the “Summary of Current Readership Research”, first prepared for the Readership Research Symposium in New Orleans 1981 and then up-dated for all subsequent Symposia. This Summary covers in detail 98 total audience national readership surveys in 74 countries.

The basic format of the Summary stays unchanged. Six summary tables are followed by the detailed matrix in six distinct colour-coded sections, dealing with the methodological aspects of readership surveys. The Summary aims to document current practices and compare them with each other, in a schematic way. It is not saying what is right and what is wrong.

By providing this source of information, we hope to raise awareness of the various methodological solutions in use and try to contribute to the worldwide improvement of readership measurement methods, as appropriate.

An additional section at the end gives brief details of other major readership surveys, most of which are designed to provide readership data amongst special populations. The list of surveys in this last section is far from complete. We hope however that it will be found useful. The final section lists the contact addresses of the 98 organisations whose survey details are included in the main part of this report.

Published 2009. A4 Paperback 364 pages. Price £75.

Effective Print Media Measurement

Published 1999. Hardback 224 pages. Price £90* *Concessions available. Please contact the Symposium Secretariat for more details.

Effective Print Media Measurement is required reading for any media researcher who has to design surveys or comment on such matters. It is of value to any user of readership research who is interested in the way surveys are conducted and who wants to know how to assess different research solutions. Audience research addresses much – though not all – of the information needs of publishers, advertisers and agencies. The commercial value of readership research findings is enormous. This book shows how the delivery of data to users may be as free from bias as possible.

In concise, elegantly-written prose, the author describes the objectives of readership research and looks at the design options. He deals with sampling and interview methods, average-issue-readership and alternative currencies, reading frequency, reading intensity, the needs and methods of ascription and fusion, research issues concerning internet-based publishing, and much more.

Contents

  • Readership measurement objectives
  • Whom should we question?
  • Drawing samples
  • Collecting data
  • Surveys, panels and diaries
  • Average issue readership
  • Alternative currencies
  • Reading frequency
  • Reading intensity, place of reading, copy source and the reader/publication relationship
  • Questionnaire structure
  • Fieldwork and the interviewer
  • Filling gaps and marring surveys: ascription and fusion
  • Paperless publishing:internet measurement

About the Author

Michael Brown has worked in market research for more than 40 years, specialising in media audience measurement in general and readership research in particular. On the formation of the (British) joint industry Committee for National Readership Surveys (JICNARS) in 1968, he was appointed as the first Technical Director and subsequently served as Technical Consultant.

He was for 10 years president of EMRO, the association of European Media Research Organisations.

Michael has lectured and consulted widely in Europe, North America, the Far East and South Africa. The book draws on the papers of the eight Worldwide Readership Research Symposia from 1981 in New Orleans to 1997 in Vancouver and is published to coincide with the ninth Symposium 1999 in Florence.

This book contains extensive notes and references, and an index.