PMB Print Measurement Bureau members have voted to switch to a new survey methodology in a move that could reverse the radical decline in readership numbers recorded for a number of magazines.

Specifically, PMB is moving to the ‘recent reading’ method of gauging consumer reading patterns from the more cumbersome ‘through-the-book’ method.

The recent reading process eliminates the time-consuming task of having survey respondents flip through pared-down versions of the approximately 100 magazines that take part in the PMB study. With recent reading, respondents will simply be shown cards illustrating the logos of each of the magazines and asked if they have read any issue of the said publication in the past week or month.

Steve Ferley, president of PMB, says recent reading is much more cost efficient, adding that the PMB’s method of collecting product data, which is covered in a separate questionnaire, will not be affected by the change.

The first results of the new measurement approach will be released with the PMB 2001 report.

‘Canada was the only remaining country in the world using through-the-book,’ says Ferley. ‘[It] was originally intended to measure just a few magazines. We have pushed it to what might be the limit with 100.’

Bruce Baumann, vice-president, media director at Ammirati Puris Lintas, says the change to recent reading will put PMB on an equal playing field with other readership studies around the world, a fact that is particularly important for agencies that are part of international networks.

Baumann says when Ammirati is asked, as the Canadian sister to a worldwide company, to submit a magazine plan, he often comes up with a cost per thousand of $40 – significantly higher than the $12 or $16 per thousand reported in the U.S. or U.K.

The discrepancy, he explains, is caused by through-the-book reporting lower readership numbers than recent reading. As a result of PMB’s switch to recent reading, Baumann anticipates absolute readership numbers for most magazine titles to rise significantly – by as much as 100-200%.

Although he believes through-the-book to be the most accurate method of measurement, Baumann says it too tiring for respondents to complete, and it is this fatigue that he believes is contributing to the drop in readership numbers evident this year.