MPA Rolls Out Pilot Program For Digital Measurement Standardization:About 100 independent magazine media professionals descended on the Big Easy this week for the MPA’s 10th annual Independent Magazine Media Conference (IMAG). While the event was focused on strategies and tactics for the independent market, during the first full day of the conference the association announced a new pilot program that could stretch far across the entire magazine market. At a morning session on digital magazine measurement, Ethan Grey the association’s SVP of Digital Strategy and Initiatives, formally introduced a multi-industry pilot program that aims to provide consistent measurement and reporting of standardized metrics and data sets for magazine media across tablets and other digital platforms. “Digital editions are like having every international plug in front of you—they’re all different,” Grey said. "Every electrical outlet works exactly as designed, and all deliver power, but they're incompatible."The fundamental issue is two different publishers can both create a digital edition and have a single ad unit applied. Yet, depending on what platform the digital edition was built in, data sets from the same ad may vary widely—though both are equally accurate.
