Although both research outfits were owned by the same parent corporation, they previously operated as separate businesses. In some cases, they could even be said to compete with each other, although they generally focused on different aspects of magazine readership.

Specifically, MRI has focused on measuring and describing audiences with demographic data. Starch, on the other hand, has mostly focused on determining the reception and impact of ads. Now, however, media trends are prompting the companies to merge these services.

As the Internet continues to grow as an ad medium, print media are under attack, and stand to lose even more ad revenue unless they can establish parity with digital media--especially in the area of metrics, where many feel the Internet delivers superior data.

Under pressure from advertisers to show more accountability, media buyers are demanding quick, precise, and transparent measurement of both the makeup of the print audience and its reaction to print ads.

MRI attempted to meet these demands with the introduction of a new "Issue Specific Readership Study," tracking the accumulation of audience for specific issues of different magazines over time. However, this did not forestall the Magazine Publishers of America from launching a project to create a new audience-based metric in a move widely seen as a rebuff to MRI's Issue Specific Readership Study, which was criticized for lacking detail.

The proposed MPA metric would track "exposure," defined as "syndicated issue-by-issue data and key demographics, such as age, gender, income, ethnicity and family status," as well as "engagement," defined as recall of individual ads in specific issues, and "action-taking," including consideration, purchase intent and Web activity.

In response to these criticisms, MRI has moved to bolster the Issue-Specific study with a variety of new data. Earlier this month, it announced that it would incorporate age, education and income data into the Issue-Specific study. The age data, detailing age segments 18-34, 35-54 and 55+, has already been incorporated into MRI client reports; the data on education and income will be incorporated by August.

In June, GfK Starch incorporated data from its new eStarch surveys into Adnorms, an annual pub that shows readership scores for 37,000 magazine ads, appearing in 840 issues of 125 consumer magazines from a four-year period between 2004 and 2007. The data from eStarch includes "brand disposition" scores--meaning how many readers ranked the brand as a "favorite," as well as data documenting "word of mouth" and "actions taken." Together, MRI hopes the expanded suite of metrics will satisfy the demands of publishers and advertisers, as presented by the MPA.

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