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Every newspaper wins online

Posted in Media, Digital, Arif Durrani, Latest reporters' blogs May 29th, 2008 by Arif Durrani

Lies, damn lies and statistics have swamped the media industry more than usual this month, as the battle for online newspaper audiences hots up.

 In May alone, three different studies have named The Guardian (Nielsen Online), The Telegraph (ABCe) and The Sun (ComScore) as being behind ‘the most popular newspaper site in the UK’.

Such murkiness is usually confined to the likes of traditional NRS results, when attempts to calculate how many people view a single copy of a title can lead to, let’s say, surprising results.

But advertisers, agencies and publishers all suggest high accountability is one of the greatest strengths of the internet, so what gives?

First let’s sort the apples from the pears. The huge discrepancy of lost millions between ABCe data and the other two firms can primarily be explained by the inclusion of overseas users and tracking of site-centric data.

ABCe is ultimately measuring the number of different machines accessing a specific site and not the number of unique users. So when Telegraph.co.uk leapfrogged the MailOnline and Guardian.co.uk with a 153 per cent rise year-on-year, hackles were inevitably raised, leading to a promise of a review by the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards.

To its credit, ABCe has started to include detailed UK-specific data too, which places the top two the same as Nielsen’s, the Guardian followed by the Telegraph.co.uk, although that’s where the similarity ends.

The differences between ComScore and Nielsen meanwhile is harder to account for; both only measure UK users and rely on panel-based data - eliminating the risk of double counting and cookie deletion. Yet both provide widely varying results. Confused? You will be.

ComScore names The Sun Online top, followed by Guardian.co.uk, the Telegraph Group and Times Online. Trailing behind in fifth place is ABCe’s second-placed DailyMail.co.uk.

Nielsen leads with The Guardian followed by the Telegraph, then ComScore’s leading Sun, the Times and the Daily Mail.

In terms of heavy users, The Sun takes the mantle of the UK’s most engaging newspaper online according to Nielsen, with 14 per cent of visitors spending more than 15 minutes on the site.

Both ComScore and Nielsen do not include figures for the Mail on Sunday, unlike ABCe.

It shouldn’t be so hard, but the differences can be explained by the way the research panels are formed. ComScore’s recruiting process happens exclusively online, suggesting a bias towards web savvy consumers.

Nielsen follows a method known as RDD, where people are randomly direct dialled and asked to participate. A process that results in a more robust and representative sample, or so I’m assured.

Ultimately, it appears to come down to whichever way you want to slice it. The Telegraph unsurprisingly buys into Nielsen whereas News International subscribes to ComScore.

Meanwhile, Martin Clarke, associate editor of Mail Online, tells me, “If I were an advertiser I’d be mainly interested in the number of pages consumed and time spent on site. We’ve spanked the Times and the Telegraph on both counts”.