User:PublisherX/Media Research in Canada

In 1972, The Financial Post completed Canada's first "reach-frequency study of middle and senior management. That resulted in the country's first computer evaluation program.

The new media-selection tool, promoted as the "Singleton-Wood Magical Media Machine" was offered at no cost to advertising agencies and their clients. And, in a sense, it was the beginning of a revolution in the way Canadians buy and sell adverting.

The service enabled buyers to appraise the performances of the Post and all of its competitiors in the universe of Canadian middle and senior management (Financial Post Study of Canadian middle and Senior Management, 1972). The data showed how regularly each publication was read and by how many within the universe.

Allan Singleton-Wood, a senior advertising representative on the Post, had arrived at Maclean Hunter Limited in 1968 from London, where all the major newspaper publishers were selling on the basis of computer analysis. The method had also caught on in the U.S.

In Canada, though, hardly anyone knew anything about computer evaluation.

"Nothing had been done generally by any media," Singleton-Wood recalled. He became Research Director for the Financial Post and subsequently, Publisher of the Financial Post, Canadian Business, Small Business Magazines and later, Senior Executive Publisher of Maclean Hunter Business Publications.

Advertisers embraced the concept enthusiastically. Their pressure on publishers and agencies to produce similar tools for consumer publications eventually led to the creation of the Canadian Print Measurement Bureau.

Today, computer analysis is the standard in Canada not only for print media, but also for radio and television.

Source: Maclean Hunter 100th.Anniversary Special Issue (RogersPublishing, Toronto.