Welcome to our second edition of the ABA Newsletter, and a big “thank you” to all who responded to our December launch edition with your suggestions and ideas.

2010 is shaping up to be a year of significant change in the media industry led in part by the recent launch of new and innovative technologies in the delivery of content on-line. From clever software solutions, (including our home grown RealView), to clever hardware platforms such as Apple’s I-Pad, the pace of change is accelerating bringing with it new opportunities and challenges for the ABC and CAB

It has been confirmed by agencies and advertisers that audited circulation data plays a vital role in media planning and purchasing decisions. This was the key finding from the recent survey conducted by the ABC and CAB, which attracted an impressive 24% response rate.

ABC’s circulation data for the period ending December 2009 was released earlier this month. With more than 130 magazines and 290 newspapers auditing, the data revealed some interesting trends.

The ABC General Committee is pleased to welcome Jeremy Vaughan & Dean Shell as their newest representatives.

Jeremy, Managing Director of Haymarket Media is the new Magazine representative and Dean Shell, Investment Director of Universal McCann (UM) is the new Agency Representative.

In a brand new campaign CAB is inviting publishers to take advantage of the Masthead Report to showcase their media brands.

The CAB Board was pleased to welcome their newest agency representative at the last Board meeting earlier this month.

Dean has stepped in to fill the recent vacancy left by Lesley Mariott. The Board wished to thank Lesley for her active and valuable contribution to the CAB in her 3 years serving as an agency representative.

Publisher members can now download and print audit certificates as well as new badges to promote their credibility.

At this year’s ad:tech our CEO, Gordon Towell will be part of a panel exploring the evolution of audience management. Gordon will bring insights about the changes to the digital media landscape and the impact on media buyers acquiring credible and transparent data. ad:tech is the leading event for the digital marketing and advertising community in Australia and New Zealand.

Recently ABA released a case study providing additional information around auto-refreshing pages. As a result of the case study, there was increased industry debate regarding the use of auto-refresh.

In late January the ABC, IAB and MFA then met to discuss industry issues affecting measurement. The outcome was for a greater commitment towards standardisation and transparency of online audience metrics.

The ABA’s Digital Watchdog Committee and IAB Australia’s Measurement Council also agreed to have representatives from all three industry bodies attend every meeting, ensuring greater collaboration and dialogue.

As the demand for verifiable and credible web data grows the ABA continues to see an increase in new web memberships. ABC and CAB print publisher members are taking advantage of the opportunity to add the extra dimension of audited web data to their brand profiles.

Our online publisher members have ABA verified figures which means they can be trusted for accuracy of their online audience figures and compliance with the measurement rules.