NRS to use ABC figures in readership data

The National Readership Survey (NRS) is looking to incorporate the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) figures into its readership data for the first time following pressure from media buyers and publishers. It is thought the move will make the NRS more reliable.

Media buyers and media owners have been pushing for the change because of sample variations in the NRS measurement, which can distort the overall figure.

Roger Pratt, managing director of NRS, says: “There has always been this discordance between the two. We have, for instance, had it recently with The Daily Telegraph. It has been a long-standing gripe from publishers and agencies to get this changed, so the two can be more directly related.”

Pratt says the new model could be in operation by as early as the second half of the year.