Telegraph Pulls Out of ABC Audits

Telegraph Media Group (TMG), publisher of UK papers the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, has announced it will withdraw from the country's ABC circulation audits, as it continues to focus its strategy on building digital circulation.

The company said the audits are 'not the key metric behind our subscription strategy and not how we measure our success', and confirmed that ABC results published last Thursday, January 16th, are the last set in which it will take part.

TMG says it will continue to provide 'transparent' information about its core subscriber numbers across all channels, including monthly figures for volumes and average revenue per subscription, 'independently assured' by consultancy PWC. Nevertheless UK advertiser body the IPA says it is 'extremely concerned' by the news and urged the Telegraph to reconsider. IPA Director General Paul Bainsfair said: 'We know our members strongly support the independent, agreed JIC (Joint Industry Currency) standards of ABC and a separate audit from elsewhere, which may not be in the public domain, does not give them the same confidence needed to support advertising expenditure'.

The ABC is census-based, audits print and digital circulation figures and covers around 1,200 titles. Newsworks, a marketing body representing the country's 'newsbrands', has expressed doubts about the apparent 'narrative of decline' shown in ABC audits, implying that they are not presenting the full picture of today's multimedia readership, and appears 'keen to shift the industry towards using the multi-platform PAMCo readership figures, according to www.mediatel.co.uk .

ABC Chief Executive Simon Redlich said of the latest news: 'This move by the Telegraph is clearly disappointing. We understand the Telegraph's wish to promote their growing subscription numbers across print and digital, but believe that doing so via an industry-agreed ABC standard would be the best route. We see it as a straightforward development of current reporting and remain open to working with the Telegraph, as with all publishers, on developing metrics which support their strategies'.

However, former ABC board member Steve Goodman, quoted on www.thedrum.com , says the move could lead to positive change: 'What the Telegraph has done, to a degree, is taken a stand and put a marker in the ground to say 'look, it can't go on like this, we won't accept the way this data is reported' because it believes the way the numbers are reported needs to change. I kind of agree with it on that..."What this action... may do is force the ABC into reviewing what it does and how its [data] is used. It could reconsider certain elements in order to move it into a position where it's more useful for newspapers and the people who use this data to sell on both sides'.

Australian industry auditor the AMAA has suffered the departure of most of its magazine subscribers in recent years, with publications citing their wish to focus on 'total audience delivery' - including digital - rather than 'only on copy sales', in the face of increased competition from new media. The service competes with cross-platform audience measure emma (Enhanced Media Metrics Australia) as well the long-established private currency of research agency Roy Morgan. DRNO acknowledges that there are big differences between the systems in the two countries, as well as the obvious parallels.

Web sites: www.telegraph.co.uk and www.abc.org.uk .