The leader of News Corp's new digital arm says advertisers will soon be able to monitor digital audiences across all devices on a daily basis in what could be a 'game changer' for publishers.
Nicole Sheffield, who recently took the helm of News Corp's new digital business, News DNA, told AdNews at News Corp's upfronts event last night that Nielsen will soon bring out its monthly total audience digital measurement each day, providing a more frequent level of scrutiny common in other media channels.
“Metrics are changing and we are staying ahead of the game,” Sheffield said.
“Digital daily ratings will take digital to the next level and allow us to trade like TV – that’s the game changer.
“Metrics shift entire industries – look at what OzTam did for TV – it allows for more accountability, more analysis and more audience data to be collected.”
Sheffield believes the daily audience metric could help the pendulum swing back to publishing, helping to create a clearer picture of the real value of the industry.
“Digital metrics are getting more sophisticated. The better we get at it, the more accountable publishers are and that’s how content publishers win,” she added.
Digital media metrics have been criticised in recent months by TV chiefs for exaggerating the impact and reach of audiences.
For example, an online video viewer can be registered after only a few seconds of an ad running, whereas TV measures the average audience across a whole show.
Sheffield realises the importance of improving online video metrics as it becomes an increasingly important part of News Corp's content offering.
“Video is key for News Corp,” she said. “How you curate it for a good customer experience and how you curate it to drive increased video consumption – there need to be more work in that area.”
News DNA will align all of News Corp Australia’s digital assets within news, food, lifestyle, prestige and women’s categories in an effort to make it easier for advertisers to run targeted digital campaigns.
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