In April, I sent the below email to a group of smaller online publishers that operate in a similar space to Sound Alliance in an attempt to get greater transparency around website numbers.  I firmly believe that greater transparency will benefit the category as a whole.  I don’t mean this to be combative as I believe everyone can benefit by giving independent web publishing greater credibility.

The publishers were:

• Pedestrian
• Pages/Groupie
• Conversant
• Lifelounge
• 2Threads

Here’s the email:

Hey fellow indie publishers,

As you would be aware, Sound Alliance, among others, have been exerting what little pressure we have to force the debate on transparency around traffic figures and the removal of auto-refresh over recent months. I’ve been on the Audit Bureau of Australia’s watchdog committee and we are finally starting to see some action following some publicity in Mumbrella and The Australian.

In categories like tech and business, almost all of low to mid tier publishers have been audited and it has lifted the credibility and perception of the whole category amongst advertisers as a result.  We have also started to see the entertainment and music categories catching up, with Nova signing up in the last few weeks.

Another key change is that media agencies and brands are being educated on the importance of audited figures. I would be expecting this to begin to have an impact on your potential ad revenues moving forwards as the awareness of the issue continues to build. Within print the CAB Audit is an industry standard and anyone not audited is frowned upon.  That day is not quite here yet for digital, but it’s not far off.

I am writing to you to encourage you to consider taking part in the audit. There are costs associated with being listed in Nielsen and with the ABA but from our experience the upside far outweighs the cost implications.  Each of your businesses has gained significant enough momentum and secured advertising funding and support so you stand to benefit from the audit by being able to go back to your advertisers with a positive message around your properties.  Our collective space as a whole will benefit from the full transparency this will bring.

The lions share of energy and attention to date has been on getting the big boys to comply but now we are looking for mid tier publishers to lead by example and elevate the entire perception of the space we collectively operate in.

I’ve copied Alexx Cass from the ABA and Kevin Tong from Nielsen on this email.  They will no doubt gladly share info and pricing on participating in the audit

More info here: http://www.auditbureau.org.au/web_audit_services.php

Cheers

Neil Ackland
Sound Alliance

The email didn’t appear to have much effect.  None of them have conducted the audit as far as I’m aware.  If I’m wrong then I’m sure the publishers will let me know in the comments below.  I figured opening the debate up on my blog may trigger some action…