Mediamark Research 
Fall 2008 Technical Guide

Data Adjustment Procedures

Ski and Skiing Adjustment

 Publication

 Fall 2008 Total Projected Readers Before Ascription

RFall 2008 Total Projected Readers After Ascription

Fall 2008 Increased Total Projected Readers as a Result of Ascription

Ski 1,070,000 1,438,000 34.4%
Skiing 959,000 1,364,000 42.2%

Because Ski is published 8 times annually and Skiing is published 7 times annually, a unique ascription procedure is applied to them in every Spring interviewing wave (i.e., odd numbered waves). Since issues are not published between July and August for Ski, and between May and August for Skiing, claimed readership during this interviewing period cannot reflect levels obtained when the magazines are published regularly. The ascription procedure involves adjusting the audience numbers by using the responses to the frequency question (On the average, out of 4 issues that are published, how many issues of MAGAZINE, do you read or look into? Is it 0, 1,2,3, 4?) to account for the interviewing period when issues are not published. The following levels adjust each response accordingly: .125 (for a 0 out of 4 issues response), .25 (for a 1 out of 4 issues response), .50 (for a 2 out of 4 issues response), .75 (for a 3 out of 4 issues response), and 1 (for a 4 out of 4 issues response).

 

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Interviewer Estimating Procedures 

MRI requires that answers be recorded for household income, individual employment income and value of owned home for every respondent. In cases where a respondent is unwilling or refuses to provide one or more of these items, MRI instructs the interviewer to estimate a response and to indicate that the information is estimated. Interviewers are trained to use all information about the respondent and his/her neighborhood in making this estimate. The incidence of estimated responses is shown for each of these variables, respectively.

 

  

Question #

  

Question Type

Fall 2008

Answers Estimated by Interviewers

 

Total Answers

Estimated Answers as a % of Total Answers

78 Respondent individual income 1,573 17,298 9.1%
85 Household income 3,933 26,023 15.1%
87 Market value of owned home 1,147 18,826 6.1%

 

 

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Effective Sample Size

(Based on Coefficient of Variation) 

Fall 2008 Report

 

 

Wave 58 Wave 59
Men 3,616 3,611
Women 3,302 3,286
Total (By Wave) 6,918 6,897
Fall 2008 Total

13,815

 

 

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Statistical Efficiency of Key Demographics

Fall 2008 Report

Variable
Male
Effective Sample Size
Female
Effective Sample Size
18-24 695 567
25-34 1,241 1,063
35-44 1,484 1,371
45-49 823 681
50-54 727 648
55-64 1,149 972
65+ 1,301 1,463
Didn't Graduate High School 811 686
Graduated High School 1,959 1,737
Attended College 2,237 2,224
Graduated College 2,754 2,301
<$10K 224 373
$10-20K 398 643
$20-30K 600 689
$30-35K 328 333
$35-40K 343 351
$40-50K 740 618
$50-75K 1,409 1,194
$75-100K 1,074 790
$100K or more 2,263 1,629

 

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Demo/Media Data Ascription

MRI ascribes "no answers" to Personal Interview questions to provide the most complete database of our respondents. This is normally a nominal amount but can, on occasion, reach a percentage or greater than 5% of the total responses. Listed below are he instances (per Wave) when these responses exceeded this 5% threshold.

 

Wave 58
Question # Question Total
Responses
Ascribed
Responses
Ascription
Rate
TV
32 Saturday - Time spent watching 90,364 5,130 5.68%
Other
37B Outdoor Travel - # of miles traveled- 4 weeks 186 16 8.60%

 

Wave 59
Question # Question Total
Responses
Ascribed
Responses
Ascription
Rate
TV
32 Saturday - Time spent watching 95,483 5,920 6.20%
33 Sunday - Time spent watching 84,172 4,716 5.60%
Other
37B Outdoor Travel - # of miles traveled- 4 weeks 165 13 7.90%

 

 

 

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