Our subject refers to a partial field in preparatory work for marketing decisions in the communication industry - that is one way of handling the available data. We shall not treat analytical techniques as forecasting or decision processing which allow particular answers to questions of the marketing practitioners. We only want to discuss one phase in which the researcher tries to explore the structure of the respective market.
On the subject of editorial research the group mentioned two things: first, the difficulty that researchers have in communicating with editors; and secondly the dilemma between satisfying objective management needs and the political objectives of the editor - a situation which exists in many countries. There followed an extended discussion on the subject of how people obtain their newspapers .
My task is to give an introduction into a discussion about a very important subject which we all know very well since a long time in every country - namely the sampling procedure. What may be the particular aspect of sampling problems on a European scale? Someone may have the opinion that a European sample is simply the addition of samples of the different countries. Up to a certain point this may be correct. Nevertheless, there will be a set of additional problems which we shall meet in practice - and therefore I want to pick up these extraordinary problems. I propose that we treat, at first, the sample of individuals and that we neglect - for the moment at least - those samples which are based on other units than individuals or households.
Before reporting upon the discussions of the different contributions, I would like to make some general remarks which result from our discussion group Nr. 3 and which do not refer to the one or the other specific report.
The discussion of the contributions of B. Baldrey and K.S. Feldman and J.F. Boss consisted at first of the classification of both systems.
The door to forecasting opens more easily for the layman if he studies the foundations on which the question of forecasting is based. It means looking in to the future. The various methods of forecasting differ basically only in the way this search is carried out, i.e. in its degree of its complexity, not, however, which equations or which statistical aids are used. It is important which ideas concerning the connexion between, and the significance of, the forces are used as a basis, and the requirements as to reliability and accuracy, and last but not least, the degree of difficulty with which the calculation is made, or will be made, for instance in regard to the acquisition of data or the time available for making the forecast. The importance of this part of the techniques of forecasting cannot be too highly emphasised. However carefully a model is conceived, the difficulties of the forecaster really only begin when he is faced with that part of the job in which the model is fed with empirical data from the actuality of the business world which have to be made real to life. If one tries to trace the forecast back to its source, using engineering practice , one encounters the expression 'extrapolation'. Because of its character, each forecast is an extrapolation, however well it may be disguised by clever and complicated model constructions.
Operations Research, in two ways, has established the basis for a new universalism. For one thing, operations research is concerned with the entire system of an organisation or enterprise inclusive of all its executives and their functions secondly operations research links quite heterogeneous sciences in working at a problem. Individual universalism is replaced by universalism in a team. The elements of Operations Research, in and by themselves, are nothing basically new; what is really new that is the method of combining those elements in systematical scientific research.
Operations Research, in two ways, has established the basis for a new universalism. For one thing, operations research is concerned with the entire system of an organisation or enterprise inclusive of all its executives and their functions secondly operations research links quite heterogeneous sciences in working at a problem. Individual universalism is replaced by universalism in a team. The elements of Operations Research, in and by themselves, are nothing basically new; what is really new that is the method of combining those elements in systematical scientific research.