NIELSEN AXES PAPER RATINGS BOOKS
By Adnews Staff
Nielsen Media Research (Canada) of Markham, Ontario will cease publication of hardcopy ratings books in favour of electronic publishing with the beginning of the fall television season. Citing the growing amount of information to be distributed as a result of new specialty channels and the addition of a Montreal service, the TV ratings company has deemed Web-based publishing to be the most cost efficient delivery method. "We and our clients are happy to leave the trees in the forest where they belong," said Nielsen president David Tattle. "Our company produces a lot of information, and the best way to get this information to our customers is through the Web, to their desktop computers." In the past, a year's worth of paper ratings reports for all Nielsen's markets weighed-in at over 200 phone-book-size volumes. The company has stated that it will use the savings resulting from electronic publishing to increase the size of the Canadian television people meter sample size, as an aid to accuracy.