E-surveys cramped: not enough E-addresses

Many trade publishers, at least in the U.S., have e-mail addresses for fewer than half of their readers, according to an article in Media Business. Many have valid e-mail addresses for only 20 or 30 per cent of their records. This can cause some concerns about validity of results in what is now a headlong trend towards online or e-mail reader surveys. The savings that are possible by online surveys are so big that some publishers have given up on postal surveys altogether. The lack of addresses can be mitigated somewhat by sending to a larger sample. But the problem remains that the researchers and publishers can never be sure if the results they are getting is representative of the whole readership.

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