Internet site measurement developments and print

At the 1999 WRRS in Florence, McDonald explored the tripartite topology of internet site metrics – Site-Centric, Ad-Centric
and User-Centric – broadly identifying the means, strengths and vulnerabilities of each. At the time it was reasonable for print
to assume an interested, but nevertheless somewhat detached orientation with respect to the “battle about how best to measure
opportunities to see ads on online media…� [McDonald, 1999] Disinterested interest is no longer a viable orientation for most print publishers, at least in the United States. Print media are
aggressively pursuing internet strategies designed to complement and enhance their hardcopy products the better to sustain and
develop their “total� audiences. Increasingly traditional print media companies are re-imagining and repositioning themselves as media brands for which hardcopy and the internet are two primary (but not necessarily exclusive) channels through which their
products are distributed.
As such, the traditional print media have become acutely sensitive to developments in internet measurement – both as they bear
on the assessment of their own sites’ audiences and as they point the way toward establishing total brand audiences across both hardcopy and digital delivery platforms.

Download Paper (PDF)