The National Readership Survey, the body that provides the most authoritative estimates of printed newspaper and magazine readerships, is taking part in a trial that could lead to the fusion of print and online audiences.
It has appointed the research specialist RSMB and UKOM/Nielsen to conduct a test to see whether a combined print-online measurement will work successfully in future.
The results of the six-month test should be available for assessment early next year. If successful, NRS and its stakeholders - which include the Newspaper Publishers Association and its magazine equivalent - will then decide if the fusion should become a permanent feature of the regular readership surveys.
It would enable publishers and media buyers to assess both print and online audiences together for the first time. Or, to use the jargon, it will "provide the planning, buying and selling communities with a continuous single-source trading currency database of print readership and the online equivalent."
Using a data fusion approach ensures that the survey's readership estimates, which will continue to be collected by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the NRS, are not disrupted.
Mike Ironside, NRS chief executive, said: "This test is an intrinsic part of transforming the NRS into a full communication survey, not just one focused on readership.
"For the first time, the advertising industry will be provided, on a continuous basis, with a trading and planning application, giving a single-screen solution to combine coverage and frequency for both print and online audiences."
And Nielsen's commercial director Ben Mein said: "This tie-up is welcome news for planners and publishers who want to know the elusive combined readership number across print and online."
It has been a long time coming - too long - but let's hope the test works well. I wonder, however, whether News International will find it helpful now that it has walled off so many thousands of its previous users by charging for access to The Times and Sunday Times.
