• by June 4, 2004

HERE'S THE COUNT ON DON'T COUNT US OUT -- The most ironic part of Don't Count Us Out's battle with Nielsen over its local people meters, and the part that journalists covering the story have found most vexing, is that DCUO has been faulting Nielsen for its lack of "transparency" and for failing to disclose key information related to its methods and samples. The reason that's so ironic is that DCUO has been anything but transparent about its relationship with its primary financial backer News Corp., the company that precipitated the whole battle when it failed to reach an agreement with Nielsen in March over how to deal with the new meters.

The frustration of the news media reached a fever pitch Wednesday during a DCUO press conference, in which Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition and the primary front man for the coalition in recent weeks, briefed reporters on the group's plans to take legal action to stop Nielsen's local people meters.

The conference opened when Lisa Cohen, a public relations executive who up until now had identified herself only as someone "representing" DCUO, was peppered with four rapid fire questions from New York Times ad columnist Stuart Elliott, which finally elicited the fact that Cohen is an executive with the PR firm of Fabiani & Lehane. She said she was working for DCUO but she never said who was paying her.

Following some prepared remarks by Nogales, the Times' Elliott, and reporters from Adweek, Mediaweek, Broadcasting & Cable, TelevisionWeek and Reuters, pounced on Nogales for information about who was backing DCUO, and exactly what News Corp.'s role was in the organization. Nogales' responses included "I don't know" (nine times), "That's a legitimate question" (three times), or referrals to other entities, including "Fox," "lawyers" or others (10 times).

Example: "That's a very legitimate question, and this is my answer to that: You know, there are so many groups involved in Don't Count Us Out. As you know, this started in New York. We're kind of latecomers to the group, because it started over there. So, I'm not closely aligned to the leadership to know all the answers to your questions. I think your question is a very legitimate one. I think that Fox should tell you how much they are contributing, if at all. And I'm sure that they are. I just don't happen to know the extent of that, because it came out of the New York folks. But again, it's a very legitimate question."

But it was another question by the Times' Elliott that may have suggested a legal motivation for the lack of transparency about News Corp.'s role in DCUO.

"The reason I ask," said Elliott, "is because their involvement would create this peculiar position of a Nielsen customer suing Nielsen and that might result in the courts looking at whatever legal actions you take in a different way."

At that point, Fabiani & Lehane's Cohen offered to get back to reporters with someone from Fox who she said would answer those questions.

To their credit, a senior News Corp. executive, Gary Ginsberg, did come clean with some reporters, acknowledging News Corp's role as the primary financial backer of DCUO's PR, advertising, lobbying and legal efforts. While he declined to specify the precise amount of that support, Ginsberg did tell the Riff that News Corp. was "proud" that its money was enabling the group to voice its agenda with Congress, the media and the public.

Now that News Corp. has taken ownership for its role in campaign, maybe it's time for Nielsen to disclose some of the information DCUO has been asking for, such as what the Media Rating Council audit of its New York people meters found that caused it to withhold accreditation. We understand that such a disclosure would be unprecedented and would require the mutual consent of Nielsen and the MRC, but if they fail to do so after News Corp.'s admission, then the skepticism of the media and others will likely shift away from News Corp. and toward Nielsen. Hey, we'll even make Nielsen a deal: If they come clean and disclose those findings, then the Riff will go public and disclose who has been behind all these anonymous columns.

Here's Our Count: Statements By DCUO Front Man Alex Nogales

                                                              Count 
# of "I don't knows" in response to reporters' questions:         9 
# of
"that's a legitimate question" he declined to answer it:     3 
# of times he referred a question about DCUO to someone else:    10 
# of answers about Fox's explicit role in DCUO:
0 

Source: Don't Count Us Out's June 2 press briefing

CORRECTION -- In the May 27 edition of "Real Media Riffs," the Riff mistakenly referred to Erwin Ephron as having a "stake" in SQAD's new NetCosts product. That's not exactly true. Ephron and his partners at Ephron, Papazian, Ephron sold an earlier incarnation of NetCosts to SQAD in 2000. Ephron is part of a partnership with SQAD and the Billetts Group in Media Performance Monitor America, a new media auditing service, but that's the extent of their formal business relationship.