Especificaciones de la solución

6.1 Tracking use by everyone, everywhere

The sector is working to understand how an individual’s consumption can be accurately tracked, regardless of the device they are using. This on-going effort will require a fusion of data from panel, cookie, providers and third parties – and will still not be as comprehensive as some might like.

Approaches which use recall may increasingly fall out of favour as a preferred option. Whereas the need for panel data is recognised by most as important for “filling in the gaps,” anything that requires post-hoc completion is seen as inherently unreliable and they are wary of using it to underpin what can be significant business decisions.

“Surveys aren’t the answer. Audiences aren’t engaged. They can’t remember, there’s too much choice, consumption is too complicated to lay out later. It needs to be done automatically.” (National newspaper)

6.2 From quantity to quality

Most providers recognise that having almost unlimited data has generated too much measurement and too many metrics. Many are attempting to rationalise the volume of data and focus on the metrics that really drive the business.

“Ideally, we’d like one composite measure which was (some form of audience size) x (some form of engagement measure)… but we’re way off that – and getting everyone to agree is going to be difficult.” (National newspaper)

In turn, the quality of the information is also improving – recent research that suggested that 40% of advertising inventory is never even seen (it is positioned “below the fold” and users never scroll far enough to see it) has had a major impact; more notice is being taken of consumer habits in how they navigate and progress through a page; mouse position is being tracked to view any interaction (short of a click) with adverts.

App data is the latest area of concern. There are layers of usage – do you have the app installed; do you download today’s content; do you read it. There have been issues with the app refreshing several times in a day, or downloading when a user hasn’t visited for days. But there is a faith that the market will rectify these problems

“As soon as there are any doubts over some numbers advertisers will discount them, so you might as well get them right the first time…” (National newspaper)

For most media companies, the problem is not gathering the data but handling and interpreting it once it is available. To date, little effort has been made to develop effective information management software that helps use data in decision-making.

6.3 Real Time

While editorial information is available in real-time, other sources are produced at best weekly (and in the main, monthly). There is a move to produce panel data if not quite in real-time then at least daily, in the manner of BARB’s overnights. Real time data is particularly important for the rapid decision making that is made in provision of content across platforms and in developing and implementing strategies to better seve the use patterns of individual consumers.

Provision of real-time analytics (Ophan, BuzzFeed, Betsy at the FT for example) for journalists at their desks, with social media and SEO tools built in will become the norm. These will increasingly be built into the content system to ensure that content is optimised at all times.

6.4 Data privacy

Some providers raised concerns over the collection of data. They are seeking a closer relationship with consumers, and adding registration or other data collection (particularly in the case of paywall models). This is used internally and helps generate real insight. However further revelations over the misuse of data, for example from Google, is only going to make people less willing to share data. Giving users the assurance that their data won’t be shared also means that proprietary metrics developed by news providers will not be able to be developed into industry wide comparisons.

Operators whose model sits behind a paywall were noticeably more robust in this area – for a start they are likely to have more user data, but they also have an individual relationship with each subscriber and are very sensitive about anything that jeopardises this.

The ability to conduct such large-scale consumption tracking is thus dependent upon the willingness of the public to have their media consumption constantly tracked and social attitudes toward privacy and the desirability of commercial exploitation of private information. Consumers’ concerns – and stringent policies around non-sharing - will also influence the abilities of scholars, policymakers and other indirect stakeholders to access and use data for non-commercial purposes after they have been used for their original commercial purposes.

6.5 Continuing need for more qualitative data to better understand

consumption patterns prompted by societal/citizen-related questions

Academic and social researchers are increasingly relying on methods combining quantitative data with qualitative analyses to in order gain deeper insights needed for deeper understanding of consumption patterns. This arises from concerns that web metrics leads to research driven more by data availability and tools for data analysis than for theoretically grounded academic research that explains individual, group, and social behaviour effectively.

To date the gathering of such qualitative data tends to be done on an ad hoc basis for specific research projects, there is little longitudinal data available, and no organised repository of the qualitative data exists. Here, a mutually beneficial partnership between non-commercial stakeholders – including academic institutions - is conceivable. For one, this can lead to the development of proprietary measurement methodologies that can be applied to specific issues. This could allow a perspective that is necessarily wider than that of individual news outlets which are focused on data that can be used for their specific business. This broader view can include how the changes in news provision affect society and how society, through its consumption of news, changes news provision.

7. Implications for measurement and digital