New Role to Lead Arbitron's Research

Media ratings company Arbitron has promoted Robert Patchen, formerly VP of Research Standards and Practices, to the new position of Chief Research Officer. He will oversee all Arbitron's research, including radio diaries and Portable People Meters (PPMs), and will help to identify new techniques.

Patchen has spent nearly 20 years at the company, and has been closely involved with the development of PPMs. He joined in 1986 as Senior Project Leader, Methods Research. In 1988, he was promoted to manager of Diary Methods and in 1993 this role was expanded to cover electronic systems, including the first tests of PPMs with consumers. In 1996, he became Director of Research, with additional responsibilities for the Customer Analysis and Demography departments. He became VP in 1998, responsible for supervising PPM research and international research programs.

Prior to joining Arbitron, Patchen was a Senior Research Analyst and Project Director at Westat, where he worked on national surveys for US federal government clients. He has also worked at the US Department of Labor, where he analysed outcome statistics for employment and training programs.

He is an active participant in the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), and worldwide association ESOMAR.

In the new position, Patchen will oversee all aspects of the company's domestic and international survey research, and will investigate new techniques beyond the diary and the PPM. He will continue to work in Arbitron's research and technology center in Columbia, Maryland, where he will oversee a team of more than 30 research professionals, including statisticians, demographers and experts in methodology. He will report to Owen Charlebois, President, US Media Services.

Charlebois stresses the importance of developing research techniques that meet with industry approval, saying: 'Bob shares my personal philosophy of working collaboratively with broadcasters, agencies and advertisers, as well as industry research organizations including COLRAM, the 4As, the Advertising Research Foundation and the Media Rating Council.'

Arbitron is online at www.arbitron.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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