Results still on hold

Two major Quebec dailies still have not signed off their NADbank ’94 survey results.

The two papers are Le Soleil in Quebec City and Montreal’s La Presse.

Mario Savard, vice-president of marketing and newspaper sales for La Presse, says he has had discussions with John Finneran, the head of NADbank’s sponsor, the Newspaper Marketing Bureau, and Canadian Facts, which conducted the survey.

Cordial

Savard says the talks have been cordial and more are scheduled, but there are still no answers to concerns about sample size, and the growth of blue-collar workers in Montreal, and the decline of managers, owners, professionals, executives.

Neither Finneran nor the bureau’s director of marketing, Mark Rousseau, were available for comment at press time.

Savard would not disclose the reaction to La Presse’s insert in the Oct. 31 issue of Strategy which sharply criticized NADbank ’94.

‘Seriously questioned’

The La Presse insert said ‘NADbank ’94 should be seriously questioned’ and recommended advertisers and their agencies use only NADbank ’93 results.

Tony Jarvis, president of Toronto consultants Jarvis Sherman & Jarvis, is not sure recommending NADbank ’93 data is such a good idea.

Because the survey uses a rolling sample, he says advertisers and agencies could end up using data from 1992.

The NADbank survey is paid for by the members of the Newspaper Marketing Bureau, which represents the bulk of Canada’s daily newspapers.