Measurement of Readership

We help publishers distributing newspapers, magazines, and digital content to understand the size, the makeup, and the behaviour of their audiences across different titles and platforms. These data feed into decisions on how best to maximise audiences with compelling content and how to promote specific content to high value readers. In addition, the data is used for trading advertising inventory between marketers, media agencies and media companies.

Ipsos employs a range of methods to measure newspaper and magazine audiences in over 40 countries worldwide – more than any other company. We recruit representative samples of adults (via face-to-face, telephone or online methods).

For titles with audiences too small to capture using national surveys, Ipsos has developed a unique modelling approach built around circulation and census data, alongside other inputs. This enables robust estimates to be made of audiences for even the smallest newspapers.

To collect information on total readership across a publisher's platforms (i.e. including print, online, mobile and audio audiences) we have developed an innovative approach involving respondents to install software onto the devices they use to access newspaper and magazine content This enables us to identify when and how often our respondents access publisher websites or apps, while also knowing in advance which printed titles they claim to read. By understanding the duplication of audiences between platforms, we can project the entire brands reach.

Readership surveys are predominantly face-to-face, probability-based methods, offering high quality data, but often at considerable cost. Ipsos has implemented digital data collection methods to moderate the cost of studies whilst continuing to deliver on the accuracy that face-to-face offers. In addition, we have integrated readership measurement into a broader cross-media service offering a 360 view for publishers across their properties.