At Small NTCFI Event, Big Questions
NTCFI's first lunch of the season wrestles with implications of digital content models.
New York—The National Trade Circulation Foundation, Inc. (NTCFI) held its first luncheon of the season last week in Manhattan. About 30 circulation executives convened to hear about new digital auditing services from BPA and ABC, as well as a street-level view of digital initiatives from two publisher panelists.
George Bartman from ABC and BPA's Rich Murphy kicked off a panel that also included John Crewe, director of audience development at Haymarket Media, and Ken Turtoro, director of publishing services at Elsevier Health Sciences.
Bartman went first, overviewing ABC's recent mobile publishing survey conducted with its membership, and illustrating the "old model" of the publisher and ad agency dynamic with a marker and flip-chart. Then he took particular delight in scribbling through the diagram to represent the disruptive nature of digital content, warning the audience that as "ad agencies further integrate [print and digital teams] they're going to be asking the publisher about the relationships between the different platforms."
Many would argue this is already happening, and BPA's Murphy highlighted that point by previewing the audit firm's new Brand Reach audit. Currently still in alpha testing phase and expected to fully launch in the second half of 2010, the audit is being designed to capture the full range of customer interaction with a multiplatform brand.
Bartman and Murphy were both arriving at the same question: Whether "gross delivery" will continue to be a viable metric. "At what point will media buyers demand the next level of reporting," asked Murphy. "Open rates? Click-throughs? When will publishers have to share?"
Haymarket's Crewe then got up and offered some cutting insight from the publisher perspective. Noting that eReaders are "something we have to address," Crewe nevertheless said distributors such as Amazon set the pricing, "so there goes our control over it."
That dynamic, said Crewe, forces the publisher to commit or be sidelined while the eReader trend passes them by. "[Amazon] is not willing to set a price until you send them a test file," he said. "And you can't send a test file until you do all the development work. So it's a leap of faith."
Crewe also addressed the discrepancy between internal Web site analytics and the metrics that the BPA/Nielsen Online reporting tool provides. He said the BPA/Nielsen numbers were 10-20 percent lower than internal reports, a figure BPA was quick to note as it rolled out the service. Yet Crewe felt it is important for Haymarket to set that benchmark now, and build on it going forward. "We'll take the hit now and build on that rather than be a late-commer to the game. That's our position."
Crew then turned to digital editions and open rates, the dirty secret of the platform. Despite being committed to his brands' digital editions, "open rates suck," he said. "It's only a matter of time before advertisers start asking for these."
And it's not just Haymarket. Crew said he consulted with "one of the largest providers" and was told the average digital edition open rate is 16 percent. "I don't know about you, but that's a hard sell," he said.
Nevertheless, Crewe stressed that his team has been testing new tactics to increase open rates: New subject lines, time of day the email is sent, and making sure readers are whitelisting the publisher's domain.
Elsevier's Turturo, then got up and wondered out loud how these new multiplatform brand audits will look and how they'll be able to hold all the information Turturo want's his sales teams to highlight. "As we move forward, I don't know if there's going to be a boilerplate [statement] for every publisher," he said. "I might have data that I want my advertisers to see, and it is auditable, but can it fit into the statement parameters? We need to think of ways to present information on these statements taht will give our sales people the biggest advantage."
Related Links
Inside BPA's Brand Reach Audit
ABC: Print Publishers Believe in the Power of Mobile Marketing
Recently in Audience Development 
Most Read on Audience Development
 |
 |
 |
Career Center
Join the Audience Development Group on mediaPRO
Connect with Magazine, eMedia & Publishing Industry Peers
Latest Audience Dev Discussions
Upcoming Webinars
No Upcoming Webinars
Recent Webinars
