In response to the ongoing demand for more information about the nature of reading behavior in Public Places, in affiliation with our parent company DJG Marketing, WRSS has joined forces with MRI to use the latest technology to gain insight about magazine readership behavior in waiting rooms.

“Through our outreach to advertisers and their agencies with our Public Place value message, we learned that there is a strong appetite for further credible research and metrics about consumer reading behavior in the waiting room environment. After many months of developmental work, we are very proud to announce a joint venture with MRI that will use technology to gain insight about the magazine reading experience in waiting rooms”, comments WRSS President Marc Passarelli.

For the full story on this break-though initiative, click on the icon below for the full MRI Press release.

NEW YORK, NY, December 3, 2007— Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI) is collaborating with DJG Marketing and Waiting Room Subscription Services (WRSS) to test radio frequency identification (RFID) technology as a means of measuring magazine readership in public waiting rooms. ...Read More...

Reflecting the recent release of Fall ’07 data, the table below lists the top 25 gaining magazine titles in total audience as measured by MRI. This information compares the latest total audience figures to the Spring ’07 and Fall ’06 data releases.

For more in-depth information, including core audience data specific to any magazine brand, contact WRSS.

“A good Pubic Place plan starts with carefully matching category affinity to a magazine’s editorial position, but the thing that makes a good program great is effective geographic and demographic targeting directed to specific circulation or marketing objectives.”

Steve Douglas, EVP Research, DJG Marketing

To better help meet the Public Place quality & value needs of our clients, WRSS has created a new targeting approach called FOCUS 5. The genesis of this new targeting approach and the significance of the name is that this targeting approach simultaneously focuses on the use of 5 specific levels of targeting.

While each of the 5 levels of targeting stands on its own merits, FOCUS 5 blends all 5 different targeting tactics into one consolidated approach. The 5 levels include the following steps:

• The 1st step is to identify and rank the top 25 U.S. DMA’s in producing subscriptions & single copy sales – areas with a proven pre-disposition to sample and trial the publication.
  
  
• Level 2 provides an overlay of a regional-based audience delivery index applied against the top 25 DMA’s - effectively showing which areas of the country are audience delivery HOT-SPOTS.
  
  
• Level 3 features rigorous PRIZM cluster analysis within the DMA HOT-SPOT regions to identify specific zip clusters that have the desired demographic profile of the prototypical reader.
  
  
• The 4th step is to choose solid affinity based location types from the WRSS database of 1.4MM locations featuring 235 different venue types (SIC code verified).

The selected venue types are then filtered though geographic and demographic screens (levels 1-3) to net down to the absolute best locations for a specific magazine brand needs.

• Level 5 adds one more WRSS developed segmentation step. The nature of certain category types lend themselves to further analysis and utility. Examples include multi-practice physician locations or beauty salon size as inferred by number of employees.

Wherever category enhancement data can be appended or derived from detailed analysis, WRSS will use this information to further identify the best Public Place locations to fit a Publisher’s needs.

By Kellie Watt, Marketing Services Manager, DJG Marketing

November 14, 2007 marked the release of MRI’s Fall study. Two-thirds (66%) of the publications reported in the Fall 2007 study experienced increases in total audience, versus the Spring ’07 study. Compared to the previous Fall study (2006), 55.5% of the reported publications experienced an increase in total audience.

Who’s New? Who’s Out?
With each MRI study release we see new titles added to the report while others disappear.

With the release of the Fall 2007 study, six new titles (five magazines and one newspaper group) now appear on our radar: Cottage Living, Golfweek, More, Natural History, WWE Magazine and Tribune (11) Daily.

Three publications are no longer reported: Jane and Stuff, as they have ceased publishing, and Electronic Gaming Monthly.

(The preceding is an excerpt from a comprehensive analysis of the Fall 2007 MRI data release. For the full article CLICK HERE to link to full analysis)