The new EMMA readership system provides more comprehensive data on newspaper and magazine readership across print, digital, mobile, and tablet platforms. It combines Nielsen online data with extensive surveys conducted by Ipsos MediaCT. Major publishers support EMMA as it offers more accurate readership insights. While some question higher readership numbers, publishers argue it better reflects their brands' influence. EMMA could increase transparency around pricing but may not necessarily increase ad rates. It provides valuable insights for advertisers on content performance and consumer journeys across platforms.

1. MARKETING | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 | www.marketingmag.com.au
WE NEED TO
TALK ABOUT
EMMA
With industry-backing and world-leading methodology, the
new EMMA readership system is a bright patch of news in the
publishing world, writes Susi Banks, but it has created an enemy
in Roy Morgan and, in the long run, only one will win out.
FEATURE
18
W
ith the worldwide downturn in
the newspaper business over the
past few years, it was starting to
look like Superman wouldn’t
have a day job to go to. But the
new Enhanced Media Metrics Australia (EMMA)
system looks like good news for both the newspaper
and magazine industry, as well as marketers.
With all the big newspaper and magazine
publishers throwing their weight behind EMMA –
including News Corp, Fairfax Media, the Bauer Media
Group, Pacific Magazines and Reader’s Digest – the
new fused Nielsen Online Ratings data combined with
the EMMA cross-platform audience insights survey is
big news in the publishing industry.
EMMA combines a more in-depth database
of all newspaper and magazine formats, capturing
data across print, website, mobile and tablet, and is
conducted by independent market research firm, Ipsos
MediaCT. Ipsos conducts national audience surveys
and is the official measurement system in 41 countries,
including the UK, Italy and France. Its backer here is
The Readership Works, an industry body comprising
the aforementioned members of The Newspaper
Works and magazine publishers.
Simon Wake, managing director of Ipsos
MediaCT, says EMMA provides a very accurate
picture of consumption, consumer behaviour and
brand associations through a seven-day interviewing
approach across 54,000 Australians annually. It
tracks 42 product categories in great detail including
automotive, financial services, fast food and
telecommunications. EMMA data will be delivered
monthly from November and includes full channel
planning capabilities across print, digital, TV, radio
and outdoor media exposure.
Strategist Richard Swain, from strategic brand
consulting firm Landor Associates, says the key to
understanding the effect of EMMA is understanding
the transition of media consumption that is underway
in Australia.“It’s not about, as some have suggested,
‘jacking up advertising rates’, but rather about being
able to offer more accountable pricing based on
greater transparency, which can only be a good thing,”
says Swain.
Industry experts Marketing spoke to – newspaper
heads, media buyers, agency representatives and
strategists – agreed that the new system probably
wouldn’t mean that newspapers and magazines
would see the higher readership numbers translate to
increased ad rates.
But as Bronwyn Cooper, head strategist at
media strategy and buying agency Ikon, says,
“Although currently I don’t see EMMA as providing
significantly broader opportunities for advertisers
from an executional standpoint, there is benefit
in the system providing a robust understanding
of masthead brands and how advertisers can best
leverage these.”
Cooper says the reader’s relationship with a
masthead delivered across a number of platforms
could provide insight into the types of content that
work harder on one platform than another, and how
the consumer journey may be impacted positively
or negatively by that experience – knowledge that
advertisers and their agencies are continually looking
for media owners to provide.
Swain says that the face of branded content is
changing.“You can see this with News Corp – which
has announced it would be using EMMA as its
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2. www.marketingmag.com.au | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 | MARKETING
EMMA IN BRIEF
HOW THE READERSHIP WORKS IS SELLING EMMA
sophisticated survey techniques utilised to interview 50,000 people a year, seven days a week
readership data on individual branded sections of newspapers
new contemporary segmentation of the Australian population with 10 new consumer
segments identified
new insights into brand and product consumer behaviour, and
deeper insights into readers’ relationships (engagement) with publications.
With all the big
newspaper and
magazine publishers
throwing their weight
behind EMMA…
the new fused Nielsen
Online Ratings data
combined with the
EMMA cross-platform
audience insights
survey is big news in
the publishing
industry.
preferred readership currency – with the launch of
News+, its digital subscription platform. News+ plugs
in content from its national and local mastheads and
Fox Sports, as well as a range of world-class lifestyle
brands such as Vogue and GQ.”
For News Corp to be able to use this rich data
to pinpoint specific sectional readerships across its
portfolio of brands not only online but, now with
EMMA, in print as well, is an absolute game changer,
Swain believes.
Cooper also cites News Corp Australia’s
newspapers as an example.“Total newspaper
circulation was down 11.2 percent year on year in the
June quarter, and yet more people are reading papers
according to EMMA. Based on the latest data, The
Daily Telegraph has 1.173 million weekday readers
compared to 310,724 copies sold on an average
weekday, meaning The Daily Telegraph attracts 3.77
readers per copy of the paper. On average that is
almost four people reading every copy of the paper
every day of the week.”
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3. 20
MARKETING | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 | www.marketingmag.com.au
It’s an additional
reader per
copy than the
Roy Morgan
readership
system has been
estimating.
It’s not impossibly high, says Cooper, but it’s an
additional reader per copy than the Roy Morgan
readership system has been estimating.
CEO of The Australian, Nicholas Gray, has this to
say on EMMA figures: “We are pleased with the 41
percent uplift in Monday to Friday readership of The
Australian, and feel it better reflects our paper’s reach
and influence.”
Gray says media agencies and marketers are
continually investing to ensure they have the best
possible data and insights.“I expect the category
leaders to move quickly to understand EMMA,
and, once they understand the methodology and
cross-platform insights, I expect they’ll be impressed,”
he says.
Happy to elaborate on his own paper’s improved
readership stats, Gray says,“It also means that print
in general, and The Australian in particular, compares
more favourably against other media channels from
a reach and effectiveness perspective than previously
thought. There are 3.2 million [people] reading The
Australian in some form each month. Using EMMA,
our total cross-platform readership is at an all-time
high, as is our total paid circulation [print and digital]
on Monday to Fridays [164,439] and our digital
subscriptions [51,213].”
At Fairfax Media Limited’s 2013 financial results
announcement in late August, chief executive and
managing director Greg Hywood also commented on
the perceived advantages of EMMA.
“For the first time, the Australian publishing
industry has consistent, industry-wide data for
measuring readership across traditional print and
digital platforms. EMMA data is telling the same story
that our internal surveys previously showed: that
Fairfax mastheads reach large, educated and affluent
audiences. Indeed, Fairfax mastheads attract an
audience of 9.6 million Australians across print, web,
mobile or tablet. That’s one in two of the population
over 14,” says Hywood.
3.9
2.7 2.4
3.4
2.4
1.9 2.0
6.0
6.9
Nationals/Metro
Newspapers
Larger Regional
Newspapers
READERS PER COPY AVERAGES, JUNE 2013
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4. www.marketingmag.com.au | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 | MARKETING
are also commercial realities for us to take into
consideration,” adds Hack.“Many clients have a direct
relationship with data providers, so we will also be
working with all our clients to make sure they have the
data and the continuous sets of data that they require.
“Data is invaluable in our business,” he adds.“We
actively search for indicators of human behaviour to
get to an insight. Any product that helps us do that
better is to be welcomed. Under EMMA, readership
does initially appear have gone up considerably. It’s
easy to be cynical about that,” Hack says, adding
that while it is early days there are very good reasons
within the EMMA methodology as to why audience
sizes have increased.“What needs more thought is the
relative increases across the medium, as well as what
the increases mean when compared to other media,”
he says.
Hack says he enjoys the debate and conversation
that EMMA is raising and believes that the new system
will continue to prove the importance of print in the
media mix from a media planning perspective.
When asked about how he thought EMMA
might vary from traditional Roy Morgan
readership polls, Hack says the key product differential
is the methodology used to collect the data. On
paper, it is a more robust methodology, which has
led to the increases, but Hack also questions the
relevance of this.“Any media planner worth his salt
doesn’t just plan on size of audience – that’s just lazy,
legacy planning.
“A good planner understands how publications
can be used creatively to more effectively connect with
audiences,” he adds.
In terms of what the new figures mean in regards
to circulation, Landor’s Swain says there are many
factors that determine an advertiser’s campaign
planning and circulation is still a big part of the
story. For example, EMMA’s data and insights are
one, circulation is another, and big news events is
another still.
Ikon’s Cooper adds,“Without citing all of the
factors that impact circulation and readership, when
we look at the readership results in EMMA and
compare those to Roy Morgan, and then compare
both to circulation, essentially we are seeing more
readers but fewer copies sold.”
So if ad revenue depends on readership, and The
Readership Works comes on over to Australia, Clark
Kent – your reporter’s job is waiting. M
“You can see how the metro and national audience
breaks down across print, web and mobile – there
are clearly a large number of people who access our
content across two, or even three, of these platforms.
And, in terms of digital platforms, 4.5 million
Australians access content from these mastheads.
“EMMA also gives us transparency on how the
readership of our mastheads lines up against our
competitors. What we can see here is that The Sydney
Morning Herald is the clear number one across
platforms with an audience that’s 400,000 more than
its nearest rival.
“Factor in the quality of Fairfax’s demographic
– with a heavy bias towards tertiary-educated
professionals and managers – and the cross-platform
potential of our mastheads is clear. A further
observation is our strong position in building digital
audiences. We’re doing well on digital engagement,
with audiences to TheAge.com.au and SMH.com.au
spending an average of 1.5 hours each month on the
sites, more than double the time spent on competitor
websites.”
Although some sources speaking to Marketing
said they found it difficult to comment on what
EMMA will mean for rival measurement system
Roy Morgan, Richard Swain of Landor Associates
was less circumspect. “They have a massive battle on
their hands, especially given EMMA’s more robust
and recent methodology. Roy Morgan seems (for
now) to be sticking to the party line that they are
confident in their methodology, but whether they
will respond long-term with any changes, we’ll have
to wait and see.
“Ultimately there has to be a winner – agencies
won’t be able to afford to subscribe to both (although
Pacific Mags have said that they will for now, probably
because they are still under contract until the end
of the year) and even in a country infamous for
duopolies, Australia just isn’t big enough to warrant
two currencies of data. One thing’s for sure, come the
January sales, we’ll have a pretty good idea of who’s
likely to come out on top between Roy and EMMA.”
Toby Hack, managing director of PHD, a media
and communications agency, says he and his company
welcome new approaches to research – especially if it
leads to more robust data – but feels it is early days for
EMMA. He feels PHD needs to continue to evaluate
the data, how it is obtained and produced, and how
it compares with existing data sets.“Of course, there
“Ultimately
there has to
be a winner
– agencies
won’t be able
to afford to
subscribe
to both –
and even in
a country
infamous for
duopolies,
Australia
just isn’t big
enough to
warrant two
currencies of
data.”
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