Media Research Methods 2013 1

Media Research Methods 2013

Final essay
Bethany Miller a1628485

Bethany Miller In Australia, more than seven in ten of the population read magazines. They buy 161 million magazines a year, calculated as more than 5 magazines per second (ABC Audit, 2013). This means Australia has one of the highest rates per capita of magazine sales in the world. More than $894 million is spent on the industry every year, and the amount continues to rise. (ABC Audit, 2013) The audience classified as the big spenders are more likely to have purchased a magazine than be watching television, making magazines a highly sought after advertising market. (Roy Morgan Research in Magazine Publishers of Australia, 2012). The large array of magazines on different hobbies, lifestyles and activities makes them an easy pathway for advertisers to send messages to a specific audience.

Despite recent development of apps, social media and websites through the Internet, readership data and research for magazines has remained very much the same since their inception. If we look at past research on magazines, we can see that some methods have remained consistent. The concept of readership is used to attract advertisers and has been created by researchers to help inflate the potential advertising dollars of magazines. We could say that most, if not all research for magazines is market driven (Branston, Gill & Stafford, 2006, p.271.) The term circulation has been in use in audience research since the advent of print media including magazines. Circulation refers to the number of copies sold. The top magazine in Australia, The Australian Womens Weekly, has a circulation of 470,331(ABC Audit, 2013). The Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) is a not-forprofit organisation that collects and verifies circulation figures for magazines and other print media. Monthly magazines circulations are calculated over two 26-week periods, January to June and July to December (Pacific Magazines, 2013). There is

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not much fault to be found in circulation data collection except for retailers missscans or double scans, but this is similar for any product. The margin of error would be very low. However, the ABC audits do not include digital magazine sales and these should be included.

Magazines are considered a sticky medium, meaning that consumers are likely to read a magazine long after it is available in shops (Green, 2011, p.4), and the number of readers of a magazine is not the same as the circulation. Readership figures tend to be significantly higher than the circulation figures. For example, Australian Womens Weeklys estimated readership is 1,873,000, more than three times the number of sales (Roy Morgan 2013 in Bauer Media Group, 2013). Roy Morgan Research provides the readership data for magazines via the Roy Morgan Single Source survey. This is a descriptive survey where over 50,000 people over the age of 14 are interviewed face-to-face 48 weekends of the year on different lifestyle topics (Levine & Benjamin, 2013). Considering that current population of Australia is around about 22.32 million, this is about 0.002% of the total population being surveyed (Google, 2013). Roy Morgan gives no information about who is selected for the interviews and why. While face-to-face interviewing is in decline in all market research surveys it remains the most dominant method for readership numbers (Green, 2011, p.3). There are a few problems with this method. One is that most surveys use a broad definition of reading, so no attention is paid to how much of a magazine is read. A consumer who reads the whole magazine cover to cover is counted the same as one who reads only the main article (Green, 2011, p.4). The surveys dont ask respondents if theyve read a certain issue, merely if they have read at least one issue of the magazine in a time period. Whether the issue is current or not is not recorded. Critics say that this

Bethany Miller inflates the readership data because it is possible a consumer may pick up an old magazine and merely flick through it or read a very small portion (Green, 2011 p.4). An article by a magazine publisher 20 years ago states that readership numbers are not reliable despite researchers best efforts. He writes that these numbers were determined originally to put magazines on a more competitive level with television audiences (Autry, 1993). Television creates content to attract mass audiences and magazines were created for specialised yet smaller target audiences. In the media industry, the bigger your readership number, the bigger appeal to advertisers. The question remains, why are the readership numbers needed if it is well known that a magazine gets passed along and the circulation figures are available to determine the most popular magazines? The findings arent reliable, and it doesnt work for marketers to use readership numbers against sales because of time constraints (Green, 2011, p.5). However, spending advertising money on an audience of 1.8 million sounds far better than an audience of 0.5 million. Research questions such as how consumers came to read a magazine and what amount of time they spent reading it, would help advertisers in placing their ads in the right magazine.

Magazines have faced all kinds of challenges from recessions to censorship and more recently the digital age. The industry has attempted to meet recent technological changes with interactive mobile applications and websites as well as digital magazines on e-readers. There are benefits for use of these platforms for the industry. Digital media makes it easier to track sales, and cut costs of printing (Schijns & Smit, 2010, p.24). A study found that while digital magazines are just as effective at building customer relations as those offline, magazines build a better audience on paper and generate higher reading time (Schijns & Smit, 2010, p.35). It is difficult to

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incorporate the best of both hard copy and soft copy to create a winning combination for magazines. Studies have found positive results for magazines establishing an online identity. In one such study, respondents were asked what they did with social media while reading a magazine. 56% of the readers with twitter said that they followed the magazine account (Magazine Publishers Australia, 2012, p.4). 49% of total respondents said they visited a magazines Facebook page (Magazine Publishers Australia, 2012, p.17). Part of staying with changes is making sure online content is up to date and relevant. It should be noted that during the research for this paper it was observed that on the Pacific Magazines official website, Current circulation figures from 2011 are being used, and on Magazine Publishers of Australia, the wrong description is posted for several magazines. Magazines are able to use the combination of online and offline media to make effective ad campaigns, shown by Total Girl with the Lego Friends Campaign. An interactive site was created for readers, with links posted in the magazine and the Total Girl official website. The promotion was one of the most effective of the year and generated a both online and offline buzz for the new girls Lego product (Magazine Publishers Australia, 2012)

In Australia, research is being commissioned to study current technology and how it can be used to expand the possibilities of magazines. One recent study is the Magazines and Smartphones study by Magazine Publishers of Australia (2012). The study looked at how many men and women own smartphones and what type and how they access magazine related media. 83% of the respondents have read a magazine on their smartphone using an app or newsreader (Magazine Publishers Australia, 2012, p.3). 57% of respondents also wanted digital editions to be a replica of the hard copy. The study then looked at how long users have been reading magazines on the mobile

Bethany Miller platforms, with a median found of 3.8 months. This shows that it is still early days for magazines going digital (Magazine Publishers Australia, 2012, p.7). There is no doubt that the magazine industry in Australia is researching emerging technology and how it is impacting on the medium. A press release from late last year announced that Roy Morgan, who collects the readership data for magazines, purchased a new analytics and research platform from Effective Measure to help generate raw web audience data (Cheng, 2012). Currently, visitor numbers and views to magazine websites are not counted by Roy Morgan, but this can easily be seen as a greater priority for future research because advertisements are placed on magazine websites.

Collection of data for readership and circulation numbers has remained the same for decades. In a continuously fast-paced and technological world, the collection of data for magazines particularly their readership does not seem reliable or up to date. In fact, whether readership has ever been a reliable figure is debatable. Whilst circulation and Internet data are relatively easy to collect, with sales and digital footprints, calculating the number of how many people read an issue is almost impossible. There is little doubt that there is extended readership beyond the circulation numbers but the accuracy of Roy Morgans research is disputable for many reasons. Firstly, it is not clear who is being interviewed as no demographics are given. Secondly, a reader is given a broad definition in order to have read a magazine, the respondent only has to look at one article, and is counted as a reader who reads the magazine page to page. More research is needed for where consumers read magazines and when. The readership number doesnt matter much to advertisers if they dont know why consumers are reading the magazine. It should be considered that instead of the current method of research, investigation could be conducted over

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the Internet. Face-to-face interviewing is effective in some areas but is costly and takes a lot of time. Circulation data for digital magazines also needs to be included in the ABC audits.

Research methods for magazines have been consistent for years and are likely to remain that way, at the expense of the magazines themselves. In-house fighting over readership numbers, which are impossible to gather accurately, causes friction and competition that could be avoided. Focus should be made on the target audience circulation rather than the possible readers. The content of magazines was not explored in this paper, as there was insufficient research evidence available. As with all research, there is room for improvement but there are areas that do work well and appear to be effective measurements. The magazine industry has seen the impact of digital technologies on sales. They have responded by producing research and implementing measures to allow magazines to evolve with the technology. While research may not be state of the art in the industry, it is meeting most of its requirements. It is the new digital magazine world that doesnt have the results, and needs them for future understanding of effectiveness in the field. It is believed that despite the evolution of other media forms and the Internet, magazines still and will remain an important media for advertising because of their direct audiences (Nyilasy, King, Reid & McDonald, 2011, p.174.)

Bethany Miller Reference List: ABC CIRCULATION RESULTS - FEBRUARY 2013: METROPOLITAN NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES AND NIMS, Audit Bureau of Circulations, Audit Bureaux of Australia, 2013, viewed 17 June 2013, <http://www.adnews.com.au/files/dmfile/ABC_circulation_FEB_2013-3.pdf> Autry, J 1993, Syndicated research is no match for rate base, Folio: the Magazine for Magazine Management, viewed 16 June 2013 <http://go.galegroup.com.proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/ps/i.do?&id=GALE|A144123 63&v=2.1&u=adelaide&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w> Bauer Media Group 2013, The Australian Womens Weekly, Bauer Media Group, viewed 17 June 2013 <http://www.bauermedia.com.au/the_australian_womens_weekly.htm> Branston, G & Stafford, R, 2006, Audiences, in Branston G, & Stafford, R, The media students book, Routledge, London, pp. 268-295 Cheng, S (Effective Measure Marketing Manager) 2012, Roy Morgan Research Taps in to Effective Measure, media release, Melbourne, 7 November. Google 2013, World Development Indicators, Google Public Data, viewed 18 June 2013 <http://www.google.com.au/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=sp_pop_ totl&hl=en&dl=en&idim=country:AUS:CAN> Green, A 2011 Understanding magazine audiences, Warc Best Practice. Levine, M & Benjamin, C, 2013, Single Source: The pinnacle of market research, Roy Morgan Research, viewed 20 June 2013 <http://www.roymorgan.com/products/single-source%E2%80%8E> Nyilasy, G, King, K.W, Reid, L.N & McDonald, S.C 2011 Checking the Pulse of Print Media: Fifty Years of Newspaper and Magazine Advertising Research Journal of Advertising Research, vol.51, no.1, pp.167-175, viewed 20 June 2013, (electronic EBSCOhost Business Source Complete) LEGO Friends Case Study, Magazine Publishers of Australia, 2012, viewed 12 June 2013, < http://magazines.org.au/wp-content/uploads/17-LEGO_friends_CaseStudy.pdf> Magazine Media Readers and Smartphones, Magazine Publishers of Australia, 2012, viewed 18 June 2013 < http://magazines.org.au/wp-content/uploads/MPA-SOCIALf5-website.pdf> Magazine Media Readers are Social, Magazine Publishers of Australia, 2012, viewed 18 June 2013 < http://magazines.org.au/wp-content/uploads/MPA-SOCIAL-f5website.pdf>

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Power of the Audience, Magazine Publishers of Australia, 2012, viewed 17 June 2013, <http://magazines.org.au/nickable-charts> Schijns, J M.C & Smit, E.G 2010 Custom Magazines: Where Digital Page-Turn Editions Fail Journal of international business and economics, vol.10, no.4, pp. 2437, viewed 12 June 2013, (electronic EBSCOhost Business Source Complete) Pacific Magazines 2013, Circulation, Pacific Magazines, viewed 18 June 2013, <http://pacificmagazines.com.au/Pages/insight/default.aspx?a=circulation>