MPA Launches Magazine Media 360 Brand Audience Report

NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- MPA - The Association of Magazine Media today launched Magazine Media 360, announced Mary G. Berner, the organization's president and CEO.  This newly created industry measure captures consumer demand for magazine content across multiple platforms and formats including print/digital editions, websites (laptop/desktop/mobile) and video, as well as for five social media networks to be reported separately. 

The inaugural Magazine Media 360 Report reveals that, as an industry, magazine media consumer demand increased 10% from 2013 to 2014, reflecting a gross audience of 1.475 billion compared to 1.341 billion.  This significant growth is largely attributable to a 98% rise in mobile web consumption.  Meanwhile, print and digital editions held steady, up 2.1%.  The complete report is available at www.magazine.org.

Magazine Media 360 marks the first time any media has measured and communicated its cross-platform consumer demand by brand.  Issued monthly, Magazine Media 360 currently covers 147 magazine brands from 30 companies, representing 95% of the reader universe.  Using data from leading third-party providers, GfK MRI, Ipsos, comScore, Nielsen Online and SocialFlow, it provides a substantially more comprehensive and accurate view of magazine media wantedness than pre-existing metrics that only pertain to print magazines.

Traditional measurement methodologies fail to account for seismic shifts in the content consumption behavior of consumers who have embraced the expansion of magazine media to new platforms.  Indeed, magazine media have a distinct ability to leverage the equity forged out of print products with platform-specific content that offers consumers new or enhanced experiences.  Magazine Media 360 highlights and aggregates these multiple engagement points to provide a more complete snapshot of the vitality of magazine media brands and their current and future business potential.

"The ability to capture and report a measurement which truly reflects the vitality of our brands across the entire content ecosystem is a game changer for magazine media," said Berner.  "With Magazine Media 360, we finally have a comprehensive accounting of consumer demand for our brands, an imperative for the industry since, with the growth of new, rapidly evolving digital platforms, consumer demand is today's media currency. In fact, given the success of many magazine brands on those new platforms, continuing to rely on print circulation and ad paging counts in isolation to determine demand for magazine media would be like measuring the viewership of the Super Bowl exclusively based on the people who watched it in the stadium. Moreover, since it is challenging to monetize what you can't measure, Magazine Media 360 provides a significant gauge of our current and future value - and the bonus is that the news is good," she continued. 

Around the 20^th of each month, MPA will release Magazine Media 360 industry highlights and post detailed data on its website (www.magazine.org) for the previous month.   The report, which will be based on data for the previous month, will include total 360 industry numbers as well as an alphabetical listing showing each individual brand's year-over-year audience in total and by platform/format (social media data will be reported separately, starting in October 2014). Members can promote and release data by brand, platform, or by company.

About Magazine Media 360
Magazine Media 360 is a newly created industry metric that captures demand for magazine media content by measuring audiences across multiple platforms and formats (including print/digital editions, websites and video) to provide a comprehensive and accurate picture of magazine media vitality. Magazine Media 360 uses data from leading third-party providers and currently covers 147 magazine media brands from 30 companies, representing 95% of the reader universe. The data will be released around the 20^th of each month at www.magazine.org in the MPA Magazine Media 360 Brand Audience Report, with social media reported separately in its own MPA Magazine Media 360 Social Media Report (released concurrently beginning in October). This effort marks the first time ever by any media to measure and communicate cross-platform consumer demand by brand. 

Magazine Media 360 Methodology
Data for the MPA Magazine Media 360 Brand Audience Report is collected by MPA – The Association of Magazine Media from participating brands who provide their third-party data to MPA around the 15th of every month for the previous month's activity.  Participating brands must be tracked in GfK MRI's Survey of the American Consumer® (print/digital editions) or the Ipsos Affluent Survey USA (print editions only) as well as any or all of desktop/laptop, mobile web, and/or video as tracked by comScore or Nielsen Online.  The MPA Magazine Media 360 Social Media Report, with data provided by SocialFlow, will be released concurrently beginning October 2014.            

About MPA
MPA – The Association of Magazine Media is the primary advocate and voice for the magazine media industry, driving thought leadership and game-changing strategies to promote its vitality, increase revenues and grow market share. Established in 1919, MPA represents 200 domestic, associate and international members. MPA is headquartered in New York City, with a government affairs office in Washington, DC.

INDUSTRY NOTABLES ON MAGAZINE MEDIA 360:

"What makes magazine media unique is the rich content we create – while every brand has a distinct expertise and point of view, what we all have in common is a deep connection with consumers. Today, we are connecting through many varied expressions: print, digital, social, mobile, experiential. Magazine Media 360 provides a clearer picture of a brand's, and a company's, total universe, and as we like to say at Hearst, it is truly Unbound."
- David Carey, President, Hearst Magazines

"Magazine Media 360 will be incredibly valuable as we evaluate cross platform programs, and can consult a single report for how content is actually being consumed across 'magazine brand' channels."
-George Janson, Managing Partner, Director of Print, GroupM

"As an industry, it is essential that we communicate the incredible connection that consumers have with magazine media brands," says Steve Lacy, CEO, Meredith Corporation. "The MPA has created a powerful new tool that reflects the true vitality of our magazine media properties, and the tremendous value they have with audiences on all platforms."

"For far too long, magazine media has labored under measurement (or metrics) that provided an incomplete story as to our advertising and consumer vitality. The ability to quantify consumer demand propels a more accurate narrative for magazine media."
-Declan Moore, Chief Media Officer, National Geographic Society

"As we continue to be aggressive in the ways we deliver our brands to consumers through new channels and platforms, we need to be equally as vigilant in providing the qualitative metrics that are meaningful to our clients and partners. This is an important step forward in the process of redefining the standards by which the industry's full audience reach is consistently and accurately represented."
–Joe Ripp, CEO, Time Inc.

"We have long believed you can't measure the future by using metrics from the past, 360 builds on the work we have been doing to measure and sell our audience across the platforms they actually use. To align our industry around this is to put magazine brands back at the center of the debate about engagement beyond just clicks."
– Paul Rossi, Managing Director and EVP, The Economist Group

"As our colleagues in other media industries have proven, measurement and reporting needs to evolve to reflect consumer behavior. This new method of reporting demand for our content across all platforms contextualizes the true impact and reach of our brands in today's media landscape."
-Bob Sauerberg, President, Conde Nast

"Magazine Media 360 will finally recognize the multimedia impact of magazine brands. We reach so many millions of engaged customers across digital, video, mobile, social, books and live event channels—it's time we had a true measure of this vitality for our industry and beyond."
- Scott D. Schulman, President, Rodale Inc.

"While MPA has been very clear that Magazine Media 360 is not a buying tool in its current form, it is, nonetheless, an important and unprecedented directional indicator of a magazine brand's ability to reach and engage consumers."
-Robin Steinberg, EVP, Director of Publishing Investment and Activation, MediaVest

"For too long, magazine media have been burdened by metrics that only told partial stories of both our advertising engagement and consumer vitality. The ability to quantify consumer demand will propel a new – and more accurate -- narrative for magazine media."
-Bryan Welch, Chief Executive, Ogden Publications

"Magazine Media 360 is truly valuable in understanding cross-platform consumption by brand, and a powerful indicator of where – and how—magazine media is expanding its audience."
- Brenda White, EVP, Managing Director, StarCom

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SOURCE The Association of Magazine Media