The Mequoda Online Media Index (OMI) is a Simple Calculation that Measures a Publication’s Transition from Print to Online
Online advertising is in an explosive trend. Internet advertising revenues for Q1 2007 were about $4.9 billion. That’s a 26 percent increase over Q1 2006 with $3.8 billion and a 2 percent increase over Q4 2006 with $4.8 billion, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau.
If publishers want to capture some of that money hemorrhaging into the Internet, they have to develop an effective online marketing strategy. They have to devote the same level of time and effort into their websites today as they did when building their print circulation.
Unfortunately, there is no “how to” book for making the print-to-online transition, and companies are scrambling to find the best strategy. We at the Mequoda Group, though, have researched thousands of websites and developed an easy way to measure the success of a publication’s transition: the Mequoda Online Media Index.
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The Mequoda OMI a mathematical equation that can immediately tell the effectiveness of any publisher’s strategy to develop an online audience. It breaks down as follows:
Finding these numbers is simple. Compete’s free SnapShot tool provides websites’ unique visitor counts, and the Audit Bureau of Circulations will provide a publication’s verified circulation numbers. Simply take those numbers, divide and compare them to our grading graph below.
OMI’s vary wildly from one publisher to another. Forbes, for example, has an excellent OMI of almost 14. Forbes’ unique online content and breaking news are enough to draw over 14 times as many unique users to its website a month as to its print publication. TV Guide has started to make the transition online, but as its .96 OMI indicates, its print circulation is still greater than it’s website’s draw, restricting TV Guide’s online advertising revenue potential.
How did your publication do? If you are in the A to B range, congratulations, you are doing an excellent job driving your audience to your website. If your score is any lower than a 1.0, then you should consider the record setting growth that the online advertising industry is acheiving and how you are going to capture that growth.
