The dispute over the NADbank ’94 numbers in Quebec could have repercussions across the country, a Montreal research executive says.

Anthony Lanza, marketing research director for La Presse in Montreal and seven other Probec-owned dailies, says there are 17 markets in which NADbank research may be flawed, although he declined to name them in an interview.

Further research

Lanza says the 17-market figure was arrived at after further research a panel of experts conducted because of dissatisfaction with NADbank ’94’s Quebec findings.

The annual NADbank survey is conducted in 32 markets.

Mark Rousseau, director of marketing for the Newspaper Marketing Bureau, the association of daily newspapers that oversees NADbank, says only two newspapers, La Presse and Quebec City’s Le Soleil, have not ‘signed off’ this year’s NADbank results.

Rousseau says Chuck Chakrapani, a media consultant and president of Toronto’s Standard Research Systems, re-examined the Quebec data after expressions of concern by some French-language publishers in the province, but found nothing wrong.

The issue for Lanza is the apparent precipitous decline of mope (manager, owner, professional or executive) occupations in Quebec City and Montreal.

Lanza says in an Oct. 5 letter to Chakrapani that, comparing NADbank ’92 to NADbank ’94, there is a ‘major shift’ in blue collar and mope populations.

‘According to these numbers, for example, since 1992, Montreal has lost a total of 74,800 mopes and gained a whopping 123,100 blue collar workers,’ Lanza’s letter says.

‘Looking at this in another way, if we were to believe the NADbank ’94 numbers – and nobody here does – in 1992, Montreal had 423,700 mopes against 344,200 blue collar workers,’ the letter says.

‘In 1994, we have 348,900 mopes against 467,300 blue collar workers,’ it says.

‘We have cross-checked these results with other sources and have confirmed absolutely that this shift in population simply does not hold water.

‘All indications appear to point toward a flawed sample.’

Rousseau agrees there has been a decline in mopes and white collar occupations in some markets, but says that does not mean the numbers are wrong.

The Chakrapani report says NADbank’s demographic distribution shows consistency, except for the Montreal CMA.