Gallup and USA Today End Long-Running Tie-Up

After a twenty-year partnership, USA Today and Gallup are going their separate ways, citing differences of opinion and a 'changing and evolving' relationship. The paper says it is already well advanced in talks with a replacement pollster.

No clear reasons were given for the split, but analysts are pointing out that Gallup failed to shine in its predictions for the recent US elections. Despite recent upgrades to its methodology, notably the inclusion of cell phones in its sample which some say removes the conservative bias associated with landline-only samples, its final poll gave a one percent lead to Mitt Romney, and at his high water mark Gallup gave him a 7-point lead over Obama, much higher than other mainstream polls. Like many others, the company appears to have radically underestimated voter turnout.

Losing the exposure it received from a partnership with USA Today - the highest print circulation paper in the country - will be a major blow to the company, which is already defending itself against claims by a former employee that it inflated executive time and quotes in work for bodies including the US Mint and State Department in 2007-9.

A table of the firm's accuracy in election polls can be found at www.gallup.com/poll/9442/election-polls-accuracy-record-presidential-elections.aspx - showing that it has only actually given the losing candidate a higher share on one previous occasion, in 1976, forty years after it commenced polling.