ViewPoint
February 2009

Nogales International
Wick Communications

Nogales International is a free weekly newspaper based in Nogales, Arizona, which is located on the U.S.-Mexico border. Features include arts, entertainment, restaurant reviews, horoscope, classifieds, and more. Nogales International is available for free at street boxes, racks, and in businesses throughout the local area.

944 Magazine
944 Media, LLC

Founded in 2001 by entrepreneur Marc Lotenberg, 944 Magazine is a lifestyle, fashion, and entertainment publication appealing to a savvy community of trendsetters and tastemakers in the country's leading entertainment destinations of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, and Orange County.

Use ESRI Data in Your Audit Report to Sell Advertising

by Jennifer Armor

In addition to the number of copies you circulate, advertisers want to know about the people reading your publication. Verified's Audit Reports and Publisher's Statements provide demographic data for home-delivered publications that advertisers need to know to learn more about your readers.

Verified's demographic data is provided by ESRI Business Information Systems (www.esri.com), a company that specializes in the collection, analysis and communication of geographic information. ESRI provides the most accurate current-year and five-year projection updates for U.S. demographics in the industry. ESRI annual updates include information about population, households, housing, occupancy, income, age, race, and Hispanic origin.

Using the ZIP code information reported to Verified, ESRI information is applied to provide demographic data about your readers.

Sample:

Population/Households
The total population and the number of households within the ZIP code. This is a good number to highlight if you wish to emphasize your publication's saturation.

Average Household Size
The average number of people living in each house in the ZIP code. The columns to the right show how this compares to the county in general and to the total U.S. In this case, Larkspur's average household count of 2.0 is the same as 83.3% of the rest of the county and 76.9% of the rest of the U.S. If you want to emphasize pass-along readership, this is a good figure to present to advertisers.

Median Household Income
The median household income of the people living in the ZIP code. The column to the right shows how this compares to the county in general and to the total U.S. In this case, people in Larkspur earn 103.6% as much as the other people in the county and 227.1% as much as the average person in the U.S. If you want to call attention to the fact that your readership has a higher income level, this is the figure you will want to point out.

Race
The racial breakdown within the ZIP code by percentage with W = White, B = Black, A = Asian and O = Other. In Larkspur, 90% of the residents are White, 1% are Black, 4% are Asian, and 5% are Other. If you want to emphasize to advertisers that you reach a particular ethnic group or a diverse ethnicity, this is a good figure to point out.

Hispanic Origin
How many people, based on surname, are of Hispanic origin. In Larkspur, 6% of the residents are of Hispanic origin based on their surname.

Don't forget to use the ESRI demographic data in your audit report to provide more details about your readers to help you sell advertising. The information is available, but you have to present it to advertisers in a meaningful way. There is a wealth of information provided—be sure to get the most value out of your audit report.

More detailed demographic data can be obtained by conducting a MarketEdge Reader Survey or custom-designed reader survey. Contact Verified if you would like more information at 415-461-6006.

Verified Announces the 2009 Circle of Excellence Winners

Verified would like to congratulate the winners of the 2009 Circle of Excellence award. The Circle is awarded to only those publications that have, upon rigorous independent review, been able to certify, document, and demonstrate that they consistently meet the highest standards of audit excellence.

Congratulations to the winners and keep up the good work!

Advance Newspapers/On the Town Publications, Inc. – Advance Publications
American Coin-Op – Crain Communications
Antelope Valley Press/Lifestyle Magazine/Express – Antelope Valley Press
Arkansas Times/El Latino – Arkansas Times Limited Partnership
Athens News – The Athens News
Atlantic City Weekly – Atlantic City Weekly
Austin Chronicle – Austin Chronicle Corporation
Bowie Blade News – Capital-Gazette Communications, Inc.
Bradford Era – Bradford Publishing
Business Ledger – Ledger Publishing, Inc.
Business Press/La Prensa – The Press Enterprise Company
Charleston Regional Business Journal – SC Biz News, Ltd.
City Pages – City Pages
City Paper – The City Paper
Construction News – Construction News, Ltd.
Daily Globe/The Bulletin – Forum Communications Company
Daily Herald – Wick Communications
Daily Iberian – Wick Communications
Daily News – Wick Communications
Detroit Lakes Tribune – Forum Communications Company
Dickinson Press – Forum Communications Company
Echo Press – Forum Communications Company
Folio Weekly – Folio Publishing
Gambit Weekly – Gambit Communications
Gazette/Star Newsp./The Gazette of Politics and Business – Post Newsweek Media, Inc.
Good Times – Good Times
Greater Baton Rouge Business Report – Louisiana Business, Inc.
Greensheets – Helen Gordon Interests, Ltd.
Honolulu Weekly – Honolulu Weekly, Inc.
Indiana Business – Curtis Magazines, Inc.
Industria Alimenticia – BNP Media II, LLC
Iowa Newspapers – Iowa Newspapers, Inc.
Isthmus – Isthmus Publishing
Journal of Business – Northwest Business Press, Inc.
LEO – LEO Communications, LLC
Lee's Summit Journal – Lee's Summit Journal
Los Angeles Downtown News – Los Angeles Downtown News
Metropolitan Magazine – Pyramid Design, Inc.
MiBiz – New One, Inc.
Mitchell Daily Republic/Advisor – Forum Communications Company
Monterey County Weekly – Monterey County Weekly
Montrose Daily Press – Wick Communications
North Coast Journal – North Coast Journal Inc.
Outsmart Magazine – Up and Out Communications
Park Rapids Enterprise – Forum Communications Company
Philadelphia Weekly – Review Publishing L.P.
Pioneer Journal/Intercom – Forum Communications Company
Pioneer of Bemidji – Forum Communications Company
Pittsburgh City Paper – Steel City Media
Pittsburgh Parent – Honey Hill Publishing
Place, The – The Max Company
Plano Profile – Wishbone Graphics, Inc.
Preferred Destinations Magazine – Freedom Orange County Information
Press Publications
Printing Equipment Guide – Gaspee Publishing, Inc.
Record Journal – Record Journal Publishing Company
Record Publishing Co. LLC – The Record Publishing Co. LLC
Rochester Business Journal – Rochester Business Journal Inc.
Salt Lake City Weekly – Copperfield Publishing
Santa Barbara Independent – Santa Barbara Independent, Inc.
Sidney Herald – Forum Communications Company
Small Business Times – Small Business Times, LLC
Style Weekly – Style Weekly, Inc.
Suncoast News – Sunbelt Newspapers, Inc.
Today's News Herald – River City Newspapers, LLC
Townfavorites.com – Tigris Inc.
Vicksburg Post – The Vicksburg Post
West Central Tribune – Forum Communications Company
Williston Daily Herald – Wick Communications

Click here to go to the Circle of Excellence page on Verified's website.

Understanding Web Metric Terms

If you're confused about web metric jargon, you aren't alone. But just what do all terms exactly mean and what should you do with them? It can be pretty confusing.

Here's a quick primer on web terms to help you understand web metrics and what they are really saying about your website.

How Busy: The Volume Metric = Page Impressions
A page impression acts as a counter for web pages, telling site owners how many times their sites were visited.

How Many: The Audience Reach Metric = Unique Users
A unique user is a count of how many different people access a website over a specific period of time. Unique visitors are determined by the number of unique IP addresses on incoming requests that a site receives.

How Often: The Frequency Metric = Frequency
Frequency measures how often visitors come to a website. It is calculated by dividing the total number of sessions (or visits) by the total number of unique visitors. Sometimes it is used to measure the loyalty of your audience.

What See: The Opportunity to See Metric = Ad Impressions
An ad impression is each time an advertisement loads on a user's screen.

What Do: The Response Metric = Ad Clicks
An ad click is an instance of a user clicking a mouse button in an ad space. Most ads are paid by the number of user clicks they receive.

Events Calendar

Magazines 24/7: MPA's 5th Annual Digital Conference
March 3, 2009
New York, NY
www.magazine.org

Digital Velocity 2009: Realizing Digital ROI in Today's Economy
March 3 – 4, 2009
New York, NY
www.americanbusinessmedia.com

BtoB Net Marketing Breakfast Series
March 11, 2009
New York, NY
www.btobonline.com

Newspaper Association of America mediaXchange
March 9 – 11, 2009
Las Vegas, NV
www.naa.org

2009 FOLIO: Growth Summit
March 16 – 19, 2009
Chicago, IL
www.foliomag.com

MPA Retail Conference
March 22 – 24, 2009
Miami, FL
www.magazine.org

Publishing Business Conference & Expo
March 23 – 25, 2009
New York, NY
www.publishingbusiness.com

IABC 2009 Business Writing Conference
March 26 – 27, 2009
Seattle, WA
www.iabc.com

If you have an event that you would like to announce, please send your information
to e-newsletter@verifiedaudit.com.

OPA: Premium Content Sites Worth Extra Bucks

Advertisers have long sought to determine just how the placement of an ad affects its impact on viewers.

A new report to be released today by the Online Publishing Association found that ad effectiveness scores on premium content sites were numerically higher than on the web in general. Those conclusions were drawn after analyzing independent Dynamic Logic MarketNorms data.

"The results show that ads on what the OPA considers to be higher-quality ad environments are more effective with consumers," said Pam Horan, president of the Online Publishing Association. "Quality was a key point of differentiation."

The strong showing for these sites swept across nearly all measurements and outscored industry norms for the Internet in 47 out of 47 advertising metrics.

The new report, "Improving Ad Performance Online," is the second in a series of OPA reports leveraging Dynamic Logic's MarketNorms database.

Both reports look at ad effectiveness scores for high-quality, original-content sites, compared with those for overall MarketNorms, portals, and ad networks.

Since the first report in July, aided brand awareness scores on OPA member sites have increased 38%, while scores on ad networks have declined 19%.

Similarly, brand favorability scores for OPA member sites have risen 27%, while ad networks, portals, and MarketNorms have dropped 29%, 17%, and 6%, respectively.

The new data also shows that younger audiences (18- to 34-year-olds) are about twice as likely to form favorable opinions about advertised brands on OPA member sites than on portals and MarketNorms.

"We found the data regarding younger audiences particularly interesting because of their social networking activity," Horan added.

And the same trend holds true for affluent audiences, where OPA member sites are estimated to be 94% more effective at impacting brand favorability than MarketNorms and 118% more effective at impacting brand awareness.

© 2008 MediaPost Communications

Third-party sales is defined as copies sold at wholesale to a third party without provision for returns. The third party is solely responsible for the final distribution and the end recipient. The publisher must receive at least $0.01 per copy to have this circulation be considered qualified paid circulation.

The third-party purchase of the publication must be separate from any other financial agreement between the third party and the publication. If the publication is sold in conjunction with advertising, the agreement must clearly specify the costs associated with the purchase of the publication vs. the costs associated with advertising.

For the audit, you will need to maintain the name, address, and number of copies sold. You will also need to provide proof of payment such as a deposit slip or copy of a check.

When determining if copies should be reported as dealer or third party, the deciding factor is whether returns are allowed. If returns are allowed, the copies can be reported as dealer. Otherwise, the copies should be reported as third party.

Please send comments and story ideas to e-newsletter@verifiedaudit.com or contact us at:

Verified Audit Circulation
900 Larkspur Landing Circle, Suite 295
Larkspur, CA 94939-1758
415.461.6006
415.461.6007 fax