Evolving audience measurement is too slow for the industry's good, says research chief

Magazine measurement is evolving, acknowledges Betsy Frank, the chief research and insights officer at Time Inc., but in a fragmented and dynamic media landscape, incremental change simply isn't enough:

Our future is dependent on our shifting the conversation from "circulation" to "audience."

In a column for Adweek, Ms Frank says that while the value proposition between consumers and magazine brands has never been stronger, magazines are simply not moving fast enough in finding ways to communicate value to advertisers with a timely, accountable and comparable measurement of audience.

Moving magazine measurement to the next level, then, is imperative for our survival and success.

Magazines have to focus on three, key, audience-based measurements, she says: exposure to the magazine, engagement with the ads and consumer action taken.

Let me be clear: I know that there is value to circulation as a measure of quality, and until we have an audience-based system that we have confidence in, that value must stay top of mind. But "audience" will be the first step toward comparability with other media, and toward our ability to combine them.