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March 2002
To RBS or Not to RBS...
Clients and prospects large and small are asking about the value of the Reader Behavior Score
(RBS) developed by the Readership Institute. Should they measure or not? How can it be done
inexpensively? What to do once they have it? The list goes on…
Here’s what we think – measuring RBS is good! But, it is not an answer to newspaper readership
challenges and should only be considered a bare minimum… other metrics and research are
required to reverse declines.
One of the persuasive arguments coming from the Readership Institute is that having data from
37,000 respondents has allowed them to take one heckuva industry snapshot - if ever there was
a time for Publishers to act, this would be it! As a whole, the industry simply knows more
than they did before. They’re right on target, but lets not forget with each passing day,
that "snapshot" gets fuzzier if we aren’t talking to (and WITH !) our audience.
RBS is a valuable part of that conversation.
By quantifying how a market (or segments within that market) reads the paper – RBS is based
on the number of days in a week a paper is read, how completely and how much time is spent
reading – a valuable benchmark is established.
This underscores two valuable points:
# 1 - A "benchmark" implies a newspaper will regularly measure how they are doing
against that benchmark! In our view, that means a minimum of annually, but more often if
attempting to measure progress against a specific initiative (whether or not a promotion
worked, for instance). Plus, the commitment needs to be long term… readership did not fall
overnight; nor, will it increase automatically by asking a few questions and making a
calculation, or without sustained marketing pressure! There are no shortcuts.
# 2 - Quantifying anything makes it easier to visualize and act upon. We see this repeatedly.
It’s why we spend so much time analyzing a data set and turning it into a management presentation
or set of recommendations, complete with very graphic images to communicate our beliefs.
It’s critical to evaluate efforts to increase any newspaper metric.
If a Publication has an RBS of 4.3 in the spring of ’02, conducts a six-month in-paper promotion
campaign and then finds the RBS is now 4.5, then something has worked. So far, so good. The
key is knowing what that "something" is!
RBS will not climb if specific steps – isolated to determine what is and isn’t working, if
possible, are not taken. To believe otherwise is to set up for failure.
It should come as no surprise we LOVE the idea of regular research.
Even during tough times, it should be a must.
Not an expense, but an investment that routinely delivers an ROI of 10+ times annually at the
most successful newspapers. Those organizations conducting audience research (and really using
the research results successfully) will sell and save far more than their competition, plus
(and, this is even more important) continue to develop and deliver the product(s) readers
want…they’ll exit this recession with more market share than when it started – another VERY good thing.
To really create a minimum standard, we’d love to see organizations asking 2-3 more minutes
of questions when capturing RBS data to measure section readership and source of copy.
And, to be sure, demographics - at least age, gender, race, ethnicity, and HH income, are included.
Here’s why: this information is the "rubber hits the road" of making actionable RBS
decisions. Without it, you won’t completely know how, or where, or with whom, you moved the
needle. Even if RBS grows you won’t know how readers are acquiring the paper and navigating
within newspaper sections or which sections don’t get read at all! Once related to demographics,
those two elements support better marketing efforts to improve readership!
Many are contemplating measuring RBS, so, as long as the commitment is being made, we recommend
as strongly as industry partners can; that it’s worth a smidgeon of a larger investment to
capture the RBS information that’ll allow the RBS metric to really yield the rewards that will
allow you to GROW READERSHIP. That’s all we’re saying, and isn’t that what we all want? To
grow readership.
A noble cause…and, one that is possible with periodical measurements that ask the right questions.
That’s wonderful news for all of us!!
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