Tag Archives: NRS

Tablets are plane sailing for publishers

By May 17 2013, 9:00 am 2 Comments

On a recent aeroplane flight, I looked around the cabin and all I saw were people absorbed in their smartphones and tablets of all shapes and sizes.  There was even the awfully named cross breed device called the phablet.  Well, it is either a phone or it isn’t and, anyway, I think it would be much more fun to call it a tablerone.  The latest National Readership Survey (NRS) estimates that 53% of British adults now use a smartphone and 31% use a tablet, with the latter enjoying an incredible 246% increase in just 12 months. Read more on Tablets are plane sailing for publishers…

Land of confusion and confabulation

By October 31 2012, 10:13 am 3 Comments

So, let me get this straight.  All market research questions that ask you to recall when you last did an activity are flawed.  Memories get distorted over time.  Not only could the event you are recalling happen earlier or later than in reality (telescoping bias), it might not have happened at all (false memory bias, also known rather splendidly as confabulation).  If you want true, census-type behavioural information then you must use passive tools such as mobile apps or online cookies to capture real-time data analytics without having to remember when asked by an interviewer at some point in the future.

If true then the market research industry has a problem, as do some high profile media surveys like NRS and TGI. Read more on Land of confusion and confabulation…

I do love a model with curves

By October 12 2012, 3:29 pm Comments Off

We are surrounded by data and lots of it, so the potential for conflict and confusion is growing.  It is big data and quick data.  We really are inundated – it is flowing freely just like a river that has burst its banks.  Our decision-making ability is therefore being tested with all this data.  It is fraught with risk at the best of times, but hopefully a calculated risk rather than being a gamble.  Nevertheless, it could probably always tell us what we need to know.
Read more on I do love a model with curves…

Anti-social media behaviour disorder

By September 20 2012, 12:50 pm Comments Off

Last week was a busy one for news.  Boris thanked the Olympics for introducing stranger conversations on the tube, a Scotsman won a long tennis match, Cameron apologised for Hillsborough and the Duchess of Cambridge snapped at getting snapped.

Closer to home and the NRS released its new Print and Digital Data (PADD).  We now know for the first time how many people read newspapers and magazines in print, online, one or the other or both.  In an environment of declining readership and circulation, the figures for some of the broadsheet newspapers especially were very exciting for the publishers indeed.  This is the boost the press industry has been waiting for. Read more on Anti-social media behaviour disorder…

NRS launching NRS ‘PADD’

By September 18 2012, 8:01 am Comments Off

The launch of PADD (Print and Digital Data) has been heralded by the NRS as a major step towards understanding the holistic reach of newspaper and magazine brands. Here, SMG asks what implications these developments may have for traditional print titles, and moreover how it will benefit media planners and advertisers in the long-run. Read more on NRS launching NRS ‘PADD’…

Digital reading is really arousing interest

By August 17 2012, 9:40 am Comments Off

I’m not sure I want to be sexually aroused on the train on my way to work.  A colleague told me that she regularly got hot and bothered on her morning commute when working through the Fifty Shades trilogy.  As you may appreciate, this was not an easy conversation to pursue in the office, but I did establish that she openly read the paperback version rather than the e-book.  Given that Fifty Shades of Grey became the fastest-selling paperback since records began and the first e-book to sell more than one million copies, one can only wonder how many other people are reading it on their morning commute. Read more on Digital reading is really arousing interest…

Are newspapers giving you a headache? Keep taking the tablets

By June 1 2012, 9:30 am Comments Off
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The National Readership Survey (NRS), which reports on the official readership estimates for the nation’s print titles, has published its latest set of results today.  Dare I say the obvious, but the diminishing readership of printed newspapers is a real headache for the publishing industry.  It’s also a headache for me and others who are increasingly fed up constantly reading about their demise.  It feels like a week can’t pass without some negative announcement or comment: Johnston Press scaling down some of their titles from a daily to a weekly operation; Leveson; Trinity Mirror’s shareholder displeasure; Leveson; Rupert Murdoch’s prediction of newspapers lasting just twenty more years; Leveson; and so on.  And in related news, The Newspaper Marketing Agency, the trade body for the medium, has rebranded in a shrewd move to Newsworks.  Read more on Are newspapers giving you a headache? Keep taking the tablets…

Reading between the lines

By April 23 2012, 2:01 pm Comments Off
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The packed commuter train is such an anti-social environment.  Putting the avoidance of eye contact to one side, one used to be able to get a crude, stereotypical take on what other people in the carriage were like by the newspaper, magazine or book they were reading.  But with the anonymous array of mobile devices to hand, individuals just morph into a colourless crowd.

Based on a very biased sample of train carriage commuters travelling in to London from the Home Counties, there is an awful lot of electronic reading on mobile devices.  I would say 40% on my journey today were reading books, newspapers or magazines on their e-readers or tablets, others (let’s say 25%) were either playing games or catching up on e-mail or social media on their phones.  Another 30% or so were reading a printed newspaper, magazine or book.  The rest were asleep.  No one was talking. Read more on Reading between the lines…

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