Homework for Grown-ups

Homework isn't just for kids anymore. The availability of personal computers, the Internet and low cost office equipment are helping more Americans kick the nine-to-five office habit and work from home. With 88.6 million, or 44 percent of Americans having Internet access at home and 56 percent owning a personal computer, more than ten million American adults work where they live.

Mag.
Type
Male
Home-
worker
Male
Work
Outside
Home
Female
Home
Airline 158 133 184 105
Boating 235 185 -- --
Home
Service
-- -- 152 143
Parent-
hood
-- -- 174 153
Photo-
graphy
165 121 -- --
Travel -- -- 161 127

 

Full-time Homeworkers are almost twice as likely as the average adult to hail from households with income of $150,000 or higher (195 index). Westerners are more likely (116 index) than Americans living in the other three census regions to work from home. Media access affects media behavior, so it's not surprising that the work from home set sport unique viewing, reading, and listening pro-files. While MRI data do not qualify or quantify the connection between using specific media while actually working from home, analysis of data do demonstrate that certain magazine types, TV programs, and radio formats are more likely to be used by people who work from home.
Television: While male Homeworkers are not any more likely than total adults to multi-task work and TV viewing during the day, women Homeworkers seem to sneak some peeks at TV daytime dayparts when it comes to soaps, early morning programs, and daytime talk shows.

Radio: Male Homeworkers have a greater likelihood than men working outside the home for listening to certain radio formats, the top three being News/Talk, All Talk, and Classic Rock.

Magazines: Among certain magazine types, Homeworkers also show a greater likelihood than those who work outside the home for readership. Men-at-home are more likely to read Airline and Boating magazines, and Airline and Parenthood books rank highest among women working from home.

Homeworkers Prefer Certain
TV Programs and Radio Formats
TV PROGRAM TYPE FEMALE
Soap Opera 125 113
Early AM Programs 139 105
Daytime Talk Shows 122 106
RADIO FORMAT TYPE MALE
News/Talk 162 120
All Talk 161 126
Classic Rock 160 150
Classical 128 110
Adult Standards 119 74
Country 124 101

MRI's Spring 2001 Cyber Stats Reveal 43 Percent Of Adults 55-64 Use The Internet

Use of the Internet among those ages 55-64 grew in the past six months to 43 percent from 36 percent and 31 percent eighteen months ago, according to MRI's spring 2001 Cyber Stats report.

The most common activity on the Internet among consumers 55-64 is e-mail. Compared to six months ago, use of e-mail by adults ages 55-64 has increased by 20 percent. Compared to 18 months ago, there has been a 46 percent increase in e-mail use among this group.

While fewer older Americans engage in other Internet activities, they are growing in tracking their investments, making purchases, making travel plans and browsing.

Approximately 133 million U.S. adults - 66 percent of the adult population – have access to the Internet either at work or home. Of those 133 million, 101 million reported using the Internet in the past 30 days. This means that 50 percent of U.S. adults, who total 201.7 million, used the Internet in the past 30 days.

The Spring Cyber Stats data were collected between March of 2000 and April of 2001.


MMAP Instant Analysis

MRI releases a report and your publisher needs instant answers to important questions. With MMAP (MRI's Magazine Analysis Programs), you can instantly interpret data to answer:

  • In general, did MRI magazine audience estimates go up or down since the last report?
  • Which magazines gained the most? Lost?
  • During the past year, how many magazines showed statistically significant decreases in readership?
  • For the current release, which magazines had the highest reader-per-copy rates? Highest circulation rates?
  • How have my magazine audience estimates changed over the past five years/past eight years?

MMAP Helping Agencies
Agencies can improve the effectiveness of buys using MMAP by evaluating the variability surrounding estimates to determine if magazines are being chosen on the basis of statistical noise or on the basis of real differences.

MMAP Helping Publishers
Mediamark's Magazine Analysis Program, MMAP can identify a publication's strengths by analyzing more than 700 demographic segments (three bases and 240 demos). Once the seller selects strengths to market a magazine or group of magazines, MMAP instantly develops stats and information for promotional materials. Best of all, MMAP is easy to use. It requires no coding and little training, just point and click to produce presentation ready tables that you can easily format to highlight specific changes.

Three contextual frameworks within MMAP improve the process of interpreting data:

  • current data are presented in a five or eight year historical framework
  • current and historical data are presented in a statistical framework in which the 95 percent confidence is shown for each media estimate
  • current and historical data for similar magazines are presented in a user-defined competitive framework.

Trending capabilities let you analyze how many magazine audiences increased or decreased significantly from one report to another. Users can identify winning magazines from one report to another based on percent changes and statistical differences, and you can filter data by magazine type, by publication interval, by publisher, and most importantly, data can be evaluated on the basis of user-defined custom filters. MMAP also provides a macroscopic view of magazine trends by magazine type, publication period, and publisher. 

For more information about how MMAP can help your organization, please contact your account representative.


Alain Tessier has stepped down as CEO, but will continue his role with MRI by retaining the position of company chairman. Kathi Love replaces Alain as CEO.

 

MRI Mourns the Loss of Renata Ranges

This spring the Mediamark family lost a dear friend and a long time employee. Renata Ranges, our colleague and friend for more than 13 years, passed away after a long illness. Although her official duties included human resources, office management and oversight of MRI's facilities, Renata's contributions went far beyond her job description. She was a mentor, a great listener, and a source of sound and simple wisdom. She generously shared her time and insights with anyone who needed a kind word, or even an occasional kick in the rear. Her ethics, intelligence, common sense, humor, and sense of caring made the world a better place for all who knew her. 

Senior Management

MRI co-founder Alain Tessier has stepped down as CEO, but will continue his role with MRI by retaining the position of company chairman. Alain will now focus on what he likes doing best – developing new products and leading large sales initiatives.

Kathi Love replaces Alain as Mediamark's CEO. Love joined MRI as president last June, and has already made a profound impact on the company. Kathi has also joined MRI's parent company United Information Group's (UIG) Executive Committee.

Mediamark CFO Ian Jack, has been promoted to chief operating officer. In addition to his financial responsibilities, Ian has been instrumental in many of the IT and operations projects at MRI.

Julian Baim has been appointed chief media research development officer for UIG. Julian's wealth of experience in media research has earned him an outstanding reputation in the industry.

And Congratulations to…

Anne Drake and Scott Turner have been promoted to senior vice presidents of sales. Scott leads MRI's sales in the Mid West and West from his office in Chicago; Anne is SVP of Agency Sales in New York.

Andy Arthur has been promoted to director, client services in New York. Andy joined the company in 1998.

Chetan Shah has been promoted from manager, western region, in our Los Angeles office, to director sales, western region. Chetan has been with MRI for 12 years.

Laura Brand has been promoted from account executive to senior account executive in New York.

Aimee Torres has been promoted from senior project director to research manager, Custom Division in the New York office.

Ana McKeever has been promoted from executive assistant to office manager. Ana joined MRI last June.

Laura Spero has been promoted from research analyst to senior research analyst. 

Jackie Amezquita-Murillo has been promoted from codebook clerk to production assistant. She has been with the company since 1995.

Welcome...

MRI welcomes Elda Vale as senior vice president of research and product development. Elda brings to MRI more than 20 years of leadership experience and research expertise. Previously, she worked at Ziff-Davis Inc, as vice president, corporate research and analysis. Elda's contributions to the company included leading the research department's mission to advance ZD brand strategy, marketing initiatives and sales development across four media platforms globally. She also served as the research spokesperson for the company and as a contributing editor to www.zdinsider.com, a ZD customer relationship Web site. Throughout her tenure, she created cutting-edge research to advance the company's market leadership position. Elda also worked at McGraw-Hill as director, marketing research and at CBS News as manager of surveys. She is an active member of several professional associations and has authored nearly 20 published articles. 

Elda earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Baruch College, New York, NY, and attended the Graduate Program in Survey Research and Design at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Elda enjoys sailing and playing tennis. She and her husband live in a beach community, and she looks forward to spending the summer outdoors.

MRI welcomes back Mickey Galin who had interned at MRI during the summer of 1996. Now Mickey joins us as senior research associate. Mickey is a 1999 graduate of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, where she earned a master's degree in public administration and a Ph.D. in policy analysis and management. Her concentrations were in evaluation, statistics and communications.

Mickey is interested in traveling, photography, cooking, dancing, reading, and watching movies (especially Hitchcock movies). She also enjoys foreign languages and speaks Hebrew and French, and is now studying Italian.


Adam Gropman
joins MRI's LA office as client service representative. Previously, he was Web researcher/ technical writer at University Southern California, Los Angeles, CA. Before that, he was a full-time substitute teacher in the Los Angeles school district.

Adam earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Reed College, Portland, OR. He is an outdoor enthusiast and enjoys hiking, softball, swimming, and bicycling.

Jeanine Taylor joins MRI as manager, third party sales. Previously, she was director, research alliances at AdOutlet, New York, NY, where she was responsible for the identification and implementation of strategic alliances with third party research, agency stewardship, and traffic and billing suppliers. Before that, Jeanine was director, media & agency group at Claritas Inc., New York, NY. She also worked at Claritas as director of third party relationships. Jeanine brings to MRI extensive third party and media experience from working with clients at AdOutlet, Claritas and at TCI of Illinois, Chicago, IL, District Cablevision (TCI), Washington, DC, and Media General Cable, Fairfax, VA. 

Jeanine earned a bachelor's degree in retail personnel management from Hood College, Frederick, MD. She enjoys reading, theater, movies, clothes shopping and listening to music. 


Can you answer these questions:

  • What percentage of PC Magazine readers own three or more automobiles?
  • How many minutes, on average, do "involved, responsive" readers spend with a typical READER'S DIGEST  issue?
  • According to MRI's Fall 2000 report, what is the Total Audience for Better Homes and Gardens magazine?

Just ask the winners of the MRI+ PlusBucks contest. Each week, five questions about data in the Publishers' Gateway Sites are posted at www.mriplus.com. The names of MRI+ users who find the correct answers are entered in a weekly random drawing in which the winner receives $100. 

Congratulations to recent PlusBucks winners: Matthew Griffen, DiNoto Lee, New York; Molly Glinsky, MindShare, Chicago; Kimberly Gray, MediaCom, New York; Adam Myers-Spector, MediaVest, New York; Adam Block, Initiative Media, Los Angeles.

 


MEMRI2 users now can take advantage of enhanced features in Version 210A:

Crosstab/Cost Ranking Features

Table Base Options

  • Make any row or column instantly a table base
  • Add multiple rows or columns to the list of available bases

"Pre-defined Code" Builder

  • Select multiple rows/columns from more than one definition file
  • Access English Language synonyms and Measured magazines from right-click mouse button

Golddigger Zoom View Options

  • Filter rows based on criteria set in first target
  • Filter rows based on criteria set comparing first target against other targets
 

Charting

  • Automatically build PowerPoint Slideshows

Output Options

  • Print multiple bases and targets sorted and filtered independently
  • Print/export multiple table bases simultaneously

Reach & Frequency Features

  • Page Exposure variables now available
  • Media Duplication Tables added
  • Grouped Frequency Distribution option added (i.e. 1,2,3,4+)

 


MediaPanel is much more a process than a single survey. Each additional respondent interaction over time continually adds to your knowledge base of the members.

MRI's MediaPanel is an all-inclusive source for building an Internet panel and conducting multiple research studies cost efficiently. It offers a program of proprietary research that includes monthly surveys on client-selected topics. Working with publishers to build an Internet panel of readers, MRI provides all the technology, programming and online survey expertise. Publishers provide the topics and questions for surveys and recruitment resources such as e-mail addresses, Web site banners, and panel promotional magazine ads. On a monthly basis, MRI contacts panel members for feedback on issues of interest to the publication and its advertisers. 

Paul Gold, director of Mediamark Research, Interactive, answers some frequently asked questions about MediaPanel:

Q. How do your publisher clients use a panel?

A. MediaPanel is used for a wide range of research and promotional activities. We run subscriber-like surveys investigating reader profiles, merchandising surveys for publication advertisers, editorial content and cover surveys, surveys of buying styles, and surveys profiling the publication's Web sites. 

Q. What's the difference between MediaPanel and traditional Web-based research?

A. Speed and cost. MediaPanel research is delivered quickly and cost-efficiently so publishers can make timely decisions. Once a panel has been established, MRI can execute surveys from launch to close in days. 

The cost of MediaPanel is based on an annual fee and includes registering and building a MediaPanel Web site for each title, running a qualification survey for new panel members continuously through the year and executing surveys as often as once a month against any panel member. Every interaction with each panel member is captured and responses can be crosstabbed across multiple surveys.

The Source

Published by 
Mediamark Research Inc.
A United Business 
Media company

650 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10011
(212) 884-9200
(800) 310-3305
Fax (212) 884-9339

444 North Michigan Avenue, 
Suite 2050
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 329-0901
(800) 245-1551
Fax (312) 329-0443

3575 Cahuenga Blvd. West, 
Suite 255
Los Angeles, CA 90068
(323) 882-6325
Fax (323) 882-6247

E-mail - employee's first initial 
last name @mediamark.com

Publishers receive a broad range of services from MediaPanel. We can deliver results ranging from large studies utilizing very involved questionnaires to small quick-turn research focused on a single client or even a single sales call. Before the advent of MediaPanel, small surveys of this type have never been cost effective. 

Q. What is the average response rate for MediaPanel studies?

A. MediaPanel studies average about a 50 percent response rate when incentives are offered, substantially higher than the five-to-ten percent for traditional Web research. We have had a number of panels generate response rates over 70 percent. 

Q. Can MediaPanel be used for anything other than research?

A. Clients can extend the value of MediaPanel by sending promotional e-mail to panelists, provided they have the panel member's permission.

We have also been helping clients maintain accurate e-mail lists. We use lists provided by publishers to solicit participation in the panel, and we return to the publisher e-mail addresses that fail. E-mail solicitation is included in the MediaPanel package, so there is no additional cost for this service.