Abstract:

In our continuous Australia-wide Readership Survey, we interview about 26000 people each year. Each month two different cross-sections, each of about 1100 people, are interviewed. For dailies, weeklies and monthlies, different economical and quick methods of questioning are used to produce comparable figures for average issue readership. The resultant figures approximate those from through-the-book surveys of specific issues, which cost $4,000,000 a year to conduct in U.S.A. When designing our questions, we gave particular attention to minimising or eliminating the ill-effects of elastic memories, prestige and replication. Our aim (which we have attained) was to produce realistic and fair figures of average issue readership. The figures provide a sound basis for calculating reach and frequency for media schedules.