The author will try to carry out this welcome task by attempting to give a synthetic picture of the market and of the environment of the country which is host to this seminar (Italy) then going on to relate some experiences of his company. In many countries, also in Italy, research in the publishing industry originated from the advertising sector. Audiences have been studied in more and more depth and sophistication, both from a quantitative and from a qualitative point of view, nearly always brought about by the pressure of advertising managements. Research in the publishing business was born in the late fifties and developed especially for the periodical press first as surveys on readership of individual titles, sponsored by this or that Publisher, later in the area of collective surveys, from 1962 on.
Since 1972, the Center of Advanced Communications of Havas Conseil France has been leading theoretical and experimental researches on life style factors whose influence can be noticed on the evolution of our society, our motivations and our attitudes. The beginning of this research were entirely empiric, based on new methods of psychological diagnostics and their practical applications. A second stage enabled us to validate and synthesise these first hypothesis by systematic experimentation. More recently, we have been working on a twin research project which was based on: 1. A theoretical reflexion on the phenomena of life styles, their influence, and their manifestations and ii) a study of practical methods for the exploitation of these phenomena applied to mobile marketing and market forecasting. The objectives of this research are an on-going permanent observation of our changing environment, with sectorial diagnostics and regular interventions for innovation.
First of all, a magazine or a newspaper is an object, something that you can touch and handle, something that - with a few exceptions - you have to buy with your own money. Let us take the example of a magazine; its format, its weight, the quality of its paper, its lay-out, its type-setting, its general colour, that is to say, the proportion between white, black, supporting colour and full colour, all of these build up the subtle personality of that object which is also a magazine. Research we carried out some years ago shows that buyers and readers derive some sort of mild sensuous gratification from the touch and look of the magazine, considered as an object, and that this is an important element in the set of motivations conditioning loyalty.
On the 10th, March 1974, the new Espresso came out: an issue of 128 pages in "Time" magazine format, which covered all the subject matter in the three sections of the old Espresso (Polit./Cult./Econ.). It is a format common to many other weeklies all over the world. It was not a complete novelty even for the Italian market: "Panorama", a Mondadori weekly, had adopted the "Time" format from its first appearance in 1966. Despite these precedents, the new Espresso raised many problems which had to be solved, as will be seen in this chapter: editorial problems, since the contents and format of a magazine are, clearly, interdependent variables. The problem became more acute due to the particular strategy adopted. The change was dictated by specific technical and economical requirements. But the solution adopted, although it may seem both obvious and natural, was not the only one possible. It was chosen in the light of a precise strategy of expansion for the magazine. The operation took from February 1973 to March 1974.
The research for this colour magazine a supplement of DIE ZEIT (weekly) started in 1965/66, four years before it was launched, and the research activities are still going on. At the beginning of the planning phase prior to the development of ZEIT magazin the then available market research data were discussed and analysed at great length with the editor-in-chief and his staff. Market research 1966 revealed certain gaps between editorial arid wishes of readership In 1966, a survey by the Allensbach Institute for Demoographics had broadly covered the ZEIT readers' interest in various editorial themes and copy tests had also been carried out on two issues of DIE ZEIT.
In a study for a local daily newspaper we have developed a method to classify readers according to their interests for several types of news, such as local news, sport news, sensational items, international, political, cultural, social news, etc. The study was commissioned after a merger between two local newspapers had taken place and only one main competitor was left. The method led to a typology, which made clear why people preferred one local newspaper to another and how, from a marketing point of view, the content of the newspaper could be adjusted to achieve a better penetration in some promising segments of the market. The study was based on a sample of 600 in Arnhem, a town with approximately 130.000 inhabitants, and took place in November 1973.
Editorial Research is regarded in these notes as research having any bearing upon a publication's design, content, style, and philosophy - political or otherwise. It may also, of course, have bearing upon aspects other than the product itself, i.e. promotion, pricing, and marketing strategies in general. If Editorial research is to be effective, i.e. provide the required service to those commissioning it, it is essential that a number of conditions be met. In a sense they are all obvious. However, they are by no means easy to recognise or satisfy in practice. It is also rare that all of them will be satisfied. They are phrased from the researcher's point of view, but one only has to turn them round to have a set of criteria that the commissioner of editorial research should apply before briefing anyone to do research. Before discussing them I would like to consider the role of the editor.
This paper begins with a discussion of the aspects of The Economist's editorial and circulation which led to the commissioning of this research, together with a general background describing the publication and the information that was available from previous research. The discussion covers the difficulties inherent in defining target market segments and in advertising to reach minority populations. It also discusses the need to consider different 'types' of readers as discrete populations. The paper goes on to examine in detail the specific questions which the research was designed to answer, and gives a brief summary of the sampling techniques and problems. The most important findings are discussed, and the focus is, in particular, on the use of multivariate analysis techniques to define potential markets for The Economist.
Ergonomics is the study of the relationship between man and the machines or tools he uses. The ergonomics of market research tools and their users has been a neglected subject, however. Operational researchers, it is true, have occasionally joined marketing departments in the hope of constructing a rational linkage between survey data and management action. They get few thanks and fewer successes - especially when it comes to the publishing business. Further, the producers of survey data are insufficiently curious about the ways in which decisions to carry out a survey are arrived at, and afterwards they rarely enquire in detail about the ways in which the survey is used once it leaves their hands. They have good reason. Having sat on both sides of the fence and, as often as possible, on the fence as well, I feel emboldened, if not actually qualified, to say a few words on the world of publishing and research, which is not, as you might imagine, about factor analysis or seven-point scaling or significance testing, but about people.
In the paper changes in the functions performed by newspapers are analyzed. It is shown how the type of information carried, the role of entertainment and the ability to act as a social reference point for the reader has changed. Also it is discussed how the relative importance of these three major functions can be studied, and how the kind of audiences, the papers attract depend upon how they mix these functions. In addition to the "content factors" "treatment" factors are analysed. The importance of understandability readability, and optimal complexity is discussed, and It is shown how it varies depending upon the nature of the audience. Based upon the above analysis, a model of the interactions between a publication and its audience is built. It describes how the audience's use of and satisfaction with the media varies with variations in "content" and "treatment". In support of the model it is shown how stable media "content" and "treatment" factors exist across different types of newspapers. Based upon factor analytical studies of consumers ratings of media a general factor structure is suggested. Additionally a strong relationship is demonstrated between interest in different types of "content" and treatment" factors and the papers which are being chosen, and it is discussed hew different segments can be defined in terms of interest in and preferences for different combination of "content" and "treatment".
Nowadays it is virtually a matter of course to plan a new product down to the last detail. What is taken for granted in other product sectors is still considered a rarity in the magazine market, although in this field, too, the abundance of information and the large variety of magazines makes planning for a particular target group an absolute necessity. The method of systematic market segmentation for a particular magazine and defining of a particular target group according to its attitudes, interests, behaviour and demographic characteristics was implemented in the German Federal Republic by the magazine Essen&Trinken which entered the market in 1972 like a branded product and by means of typological groups.
Closing remarks of the seminar: Editorial Research In The Publishing Industry (1974).