Australia's premium news publishers have dropped audience insight platform emma, run by global market research company IPSOS, for a new deal with Roy Morgan.
emma was started in 2013 in a partnership with Newspaperworks (into which the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers' Association was folded), and is now ThinkNewsBrands. Then it was described as a world class readership survey.
However, today ThinkNewsBrands announced the appointment of Melbourne-based market research company Roy Morgan to oversee news readership measurement from July.
"As part of this decision, emma will be retired," said ThinkNewsBrands in a statement.
ThinkNewsBrands will continue to release quarterly readership data, now called Total News, with Roy Morgan. The first data due in August.
Current users of emma will retain access to historical data to conduct comparative analysis.
Commercial details of the new agreement have not been released.
The Readership Works (TRW) in July last year invited expressions of interest from research firms to conduct the print audience measurement services. TRW is a joint initiative of News Corp Australia, Nine and Seven West Media.
Currently print measurement services are provided by Ipsos and this data is fused with Nielsen’s digital audience data to produce emma.
Ipsos today launched Ipsos.Digital, a self-service research platform for access to global research capabilities and insights. Ipsos had no comment when asked if this was in response to the end of the emma contract.
ThinkNewsBrands: "We have listened to the industry and acknowledge the need to implement a single unified readership metric for total news, produced by one entity rather than with multiple data sources.
"The move to a Total News metric brings clarity to the industry as all advertisers, agencies and publishers will now rely on one measurement, approved and used by all parties, enabling better campaign investment decisions through simplified media planning tools.
"The commencement of the partnership follows work between ThinkNewsBrands and Roy Morgan to further refine Roy Morgan’s well-established readership methodology across news in both print and digital formats.
"When the partnership begins in July, updates will be made within the Roy Morgan database such as the inclusion of additional publications and an upgrade of categories to more clearly represent the news platform as a whole."
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