In November 2007, the Audit Bureau will begin releasing newspapers’ print, online, and combined readership figures.  Currently, it releases the average paid daily circulation for newspapers twice a year, but with these figures declining, publishers have been pushing for more comprehensive reports.

By reporting the total amount of readers, including online, the Audit Bureau will boost newspapers’ efforts to retain advertisers.  The new figures will come from tracking firms such as Scarborough Research, Nielsen/NetRatings, and ComScore Inc.  These companies’ figures should catch the attention of advertisers, who consider the Audit Bureau a credible source of circulation information.

According to ABC, the program called "Audience-FAX" is "the latest step in a multilevel industry initiative to answer advertisers' needs for measurement data that reflects newspapers' fell reach and audience." Advertisers will be able to build custom reports and comparisons of the data to better analyze newspaper readership across a variety of criteria.

The figures will be reported in the ABC's Publisher's Statements, Audit Reports, and FAS-FAX.  In addition, Scarborough Research will build a database for ABC members to access the Audience-FAX information.

As Internet readership is increasing, some analysts think that more accurate figures will be necessary to garner substantial advertising revenue.  Although total readership is a step in the right direction, advertisers will want to know how effective their ads actually are on the Web, said media analyst Ken Doctor.

Source: Reuters through I Want Media and Editor & Publisher