Newspaper Audience Databank (NADbank) chair Bill McDonald says there has been a “slight alteration” in the path towards merging with its magazine counterpart Print Measurement Bureau (PMB) to establish a combined multi-platform readership study.
Bill McDonald
The boards of the respective organizations unanimously passed a motion that would see the two bodies work together to focus on a new research methodology for the combined entity, putting the potentially thorny issue of governance on the backburner for now.
“The two boards have made a decision to work more closely and directly together, really trying to grapple with the research question first,” said McDonald, who is also president and publisher of Metro’s operations in English Canada. “We thought that once we’d come up with the right research solution, then we’d deal with the governance issue.”
He stressed that both NADbank and PMB remain committed to providing a single-source, multi-platform measurement study for newspapers and magazines. That plan was first announced last summer.
“There were many members, both of the PMB and NADbank boards, who felt that with all of the research expertise that exists within the two organizations and within the membership of those two organizations, it [would be better] to deal with the research issue first,” said McDonald.
“We’re still working towards the same objective and still very much in line in that regard,” he said. “Our hope would be that the research model is built around the same time as we expected the research model through the other process.”
The organizations have informed the Joint Governance Task Force headed by PHD Canada’s Fred Auchterlonie and a data steering committee headed by Globe and Mail publisher and CEO Phillip Crawley of the decision. He said there was “universal support” for the plan among members of both boards.
Next steps for the joint initiative involve establishing the key criteria for a new research model, with the two bodies presenting their recommendations sometime next month, said McDonald.
The revised plan calls for the creation of a research committee that will work with research provider TNS Canada and other potential suppliers to develop a new research model. The model is expected to include a high-quality currency incorporating more robust multi-platform and path-to-purchase data, said McDonald.
Auchterlonie said the decision puts the governance task force he heads in a “holding pattern” for now. He said that some “investigative work” into the governance issue has been completed, but that the change in direction doesn’t significantly impact plans to create a new measurement organization.
“I think both boards thought their best move was to focus specifically on the research itself and make sure they are at a point where they’re satisfied they’re going to get what they both need from a combined research study,” he said. “Both are committed to a single source that’s going to get us where we want to get to, so they want to put the research part in front and make sure it’s in a good place before moving forward and tackling the issue of the governance.
“Bringing these organizations together is an opportunity to improve the product that comes out, and I do think at the end of the day it’s getting the focus in the right spot,” said Auchterlonie.
