Abstract:

During the seventies the readership of printed media in The Netherlands was measured by the Nationale Onderzoek Persmedia (NOP). The NOP surveys were conducted every two years on the basis of circa 10.000 individual, face-to-face, interviews and, above ail, the research costs were met by the publishers themselves - the dailies and the periodicals. The questionnaire included a large number of questions which had to be cross-tabulated against the media information. At the same time it was possible for the participants of NOP to add their own questions to the omnibus survey which was conducted in association with the NOP survey. The related computer planning tapes were made by CDC in Rijswijk and it was possible to obtain further direct analyses via terminals by means of a computer programm written by SCBEMAP. The media planning work was mainly carried out by the publishers, usually at the request of an advertising agency. From 1979 problems developed to such an extent amongst the NOP participants that, in 1982 a number of publishers (of dailies, for example) decided not to take part any more. The outcome of the differences which arose out of the 1982 NOP programme can largely be placed to the account of changes which were then made not only to the basic questionnaire but also to the method of fieldwork. On these matters a good deal of controversial discussion took place. It was in this context that Inter/View BV of Amsterdam, with its Media-Scanner service and its IMAP/2000 program decided that steps had to be taken to rationalise the whole process of media planning in The Netherlands.