The Telegraph and the Audit Bureau of Circulations

The official announcement from TMG stated quotThe Audit Bureau of Circulations results published today January 16th are the final set of ABC results Telegraph Media Group will take part in The ABC metric is not the key metric behind our subscription strategy and not how we measure our successquotIt is perhaps worth deconstructing this decision given other eventsIn effect TMG is saying it will no longer subscribe to the industry39s measurement of sales Any passing cynic like me will feel obliged to point out that at a time when newspapers are losing sales both the daily and the Sunday paper were down 12 percent December 2019 over December 2018 this rather smacks of quotWe don39t like this set of numbers so we39re ignoring them Meantime here39s another set controlled by usquotThe quotcontrolled by usquot bit comes from TMG39s comment that it will be issuing subscriber numbers or in Telegraphspeak quotOur core subscriber numbers amp8230 are omnichannel and we will communicate these numbers each monthquot PWC will have a role quotassuringquot the industry of the efficacy of these numbersOnce again and not forgetting that the quotCquot in quotCogquot stands for cynical it might be worth pointing out that the only value in any guarantee the industry has from TMG is that it will publish subscriber numbers amp8212 and that39s assuming you believe the word of TMGGiven this is the newspaper group that has from time to time been accused of behaving somewhat unethically when it comes to its journalism I39m not sure that a promise to release data that it alone verifies before handing it over to PWC for quotassurancequot is worth muchRemember the 2015 case involving the editorial coverage of HSBC When a major advertiser led to the journalist Peter Oborne sticking to his principles and leaving the newspaperFrankly whether or not you believe TMG39s promises this whole thing is worrying for a number of reasonsFirst those in the ad business have made it very clear that they expect validated independently verified data to be at the heart of media measurement and thus central to decisions on where money is spent and how The WFA and in the UK ISBA have both made this principle crystal clearSecond wasn39t it the newspapers that were at the forefront of the fuss about Facebook data Data that isn39t validated and is controlled by the vendor isn39t worth the paper it39s printed on FB lied to its advertisers and so onIndeed the newspapers39 own marketing association Newsworks makes much of the quality of its members39 data their transparency in measurement and the like And quite right too I39m not sure if Newsworks has commented on TMG39s decisionThird it is rather insulting to the media agency business that TMG thinks it can just take away one piece of data and replace it with another Agencies need sales data via the ABC subscriber data and PAMCO on and offline readership data The more data they can get their hands on the happier they39ll be and the more rounded their advice to their advertisersYes of course the odd press expert has emerged to tell us all that sales don39t matter much in an era of digital but that39s hogwash All exposures matter if they didn39t why bother with a print title at allAfter all those saying printed newspapers are irrelevant these days are usually the first people to complain when they appear in them as a result of some misdemeanourOne commentator Nick Langworthy got it right in Campaign quotThe ABC is the bedrock of all print trading to remove oneself from this trading model removes oneself from trading conversationsquotI haven39t noticed any agency CEOs condemning TMG39s decision although the IPA did issue a quotstrongly wordedquot statementWhy the silence from the leaders of our largest agencies Could it possibly have something to do with protecting their dealsAfter all it was only in October last year that the Cog Blog commented on a Campaign report pertaining to TMG39s annual accounts Here39s what it had to sayquotTelegraph Media Group has disclosed for the first time in its annual accounts that it pays rebates to media agencies and clients These rebates can take the form of cash payments free advertising space or a mixture of bothquot it said quotThe company enters into agreements with advertising agencies and certain clients which are subject to a minimum spend and typically include a commitment to deliver rebates to the agency or client based on the level and share of the spend over the contract periodquotPresumably these contracts contain zero provision to cover TMG from suddenly deciding it doesn39t like the industry39s dataWill agency CEOs be writing to their Telegraphusing clients to tell them of the implications of the publisher39s decision Some will be raising concerns I39m sure but what about the biggest guys Will they put their rebates at risk should advertisers decide to vote with their walletsOnly two weeks ago we commented quotMeasurement is the topic of the momentquotWell the first brick in the joint industry research wall has cracked Hopefully the crack can be filled and any lasting structural damage avoidedClick the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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The Telegraph and the Audit Bureau of Circulations

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Brian Jacobs

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The Telegraph and the Audit Bureau of Circulations

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