|
| ||||||
| Front Page | |
|---|---|
| Private Facilities Already Operate Without Disclosure | |
Events Calendar
Calgary Activist Network
Masthead: Credits & Contacts
Herald Makes Bid To Boost Readership For NADbank Survey
The Calgary Herald is giving away free papers to boost readership for readership surveys say striking Herald journalists.
The Union says a recent Herald flyer promises four weeks of home delivery absolutely free. Households will receive the free papers automatically, unless they call the company to request that it not be delivered.
"It is a desperate move by the company and an attempt to manipulate the system," says Andy Marshall, president of CEP local 115A which represents the more than 100 Herald writers, editors and photographers who are entering the fifth month of a bitter strike. "It shows how desperate the company is."
The timing of this giveaway is crucial. It is sweeps season in the newspaper business - the time when NADbank counts the numbers of readers newspapers can claim for the next advertising year. The NADbank survey is a telephone survey that asks householders if they "read the Calgary Herald yesterday". Unlike the Audit Bureau of Circulation, which audits newspaper circulation numbers and press runs to determine exact numbers of subscribers, NADbank numbers can be seriously skewed when free newspapers are available everywhere for nonsubscribers to peruse. NADbank is a "readership" not "circulation" survey, meaning it counts the number of people who look at the paper, not the number who buy it.
Conrad Black, Owner of the Calgary Herald, claimed in a recent visit to Calgary that circulation was down only three percent from pre-strike levels, but two independent surveys commissioned by the CEP in November and February show readership plummeted 25 per cent as readers cancelled to show their support for striking workers.
Striking Herald journalists say some retailers report that the Herald is dropping off dozens of free papers for them to sell, and the paper is being given away free to customers at Blaskin & Lane tire stores, city coffee shops and major car dealerships. Papers are also being given away at shopping malls and other sites around the city.
NADbank officials say "we can't stop them" from giving away free papers during the survey period, and acknowledge that "the more they give away, that will boost up readership."
"Freebies and circulation, that's not our realm," says NADbank research manager Richard Benateau. "Readership is what we're concerned with."
Strikers are reminding readers and advertisers that by reading these free papers, and responding positively to NADbank surveys, they are helping to falsely inflate readership and subscription numbers.