ABSTRACT
Media analytics has its roots in the publishing industries, where tensions among advertisers, newspapers, and consumer magazines over how to measure circulation size gave birth to the field in the early 20th century. Today, however, the many professional opportunities in the publishing industries for media analysts are too often overlooked. This chapter examines how modern approaches to media analytics are shaping the book, newspaper, and periodical (consumer magazines, B2B publications, academic and professional journals) publishing sectors. It explores the central role media analysts are playing as publishers negotiate the transition from print to digital, while trying to keep their audiences satisfied and subscribing or buying. The challenges of defining “circulation” for publications with different audiences, business models, and marketing strategies are described, along with some of the key metrics used. The chapter also examines how the questions analysts are tasked with answering change in industry sectors like book publishing that depend on direct sales rather than advertising for revenue. The cases in the chapter give students the chance to design their own research, analyze the market opportunities for their own entrepreneurial concept, and conduct analysis for an advertising vertical.
