Faulty Hispanic magazine
data leaves Simmons red-faced  

Researchers puzzle why numbers are way up

 By Kevin Downey

    Like all Spanish-language media, Hispanic magazines have experienced a huge surge in readership in the past year.
    But how huge?
    Apparently not nearly as huge as the most recent numbers from Simmons Hispanic Study suggest.
     While unable or reluctant to say exactly what went wrong, Simmons executives are conceding that its latest numbers appear to be way out of wack.
   Among the 35 Spanish-language magazines measured, year-over-year audience figures for 1999 have jumped as high as 776 percent for some publications, according to Simmons's most recent figures.
   Vanidades, for example, while recording only a 7 percent increase in circulation, was found by Simmons to to have enjoyed a 175 percent increase in readership in the past year.
     The report, with its wacky numbers, represents a serious embarrassment for Simmons and major inconvenience for both ad agencies and the magazines, which rely on the Simmons study as their only significant source for data on Spanish-language publications.
    Simmons acknowledges problems with the study but top executives say they are at a loss to explain what whent wrong, since there were no changes in the methodology through which the data was gathered and processed.
    Simmons says it will continue investigating the results and that it plans to meet with the magazines and agencies over the next two weeks to explain the disparity in readership figures.
  Howard Shimmel, president of Simmon’s parent company Symmetrical Resources,  says the problem most likely stems from how the company processes its findings.
    While the company says they will not retract the 1999 Simmons Hispanic Study, Shimmel says corrections will be issued once the problem has been isolated.
   "The numbers we published this year are in line with everything but last year’s study," says Shimmel.
    "We’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand why the numbers look different. We haven’t seen anything that leads us to believe we should be retracting the numbers. But we continue to look into it based on concerns clients have brought to us."
  The rapidly rising Hispanic population now represents 12 percent of the population but is expected to hit 18 percent within the next decade. As a group, they represent $380 billion in buying power, making them increasingly attractive to advertisers, who spent about $1.9 billion to run ads in Spanish-language media last year, according to Hispanic Business.
   The Simmons Hispanic Study was ahead of the curve when it first released the study five years ago and its readership figures have emerged as the currency by which Spanish-language publications court some of those ad dollars.
   For fear of spreading  inaccurate data, Simmons initially held back the Hispanic Study but was pressured by agencies to release information they consider vital to their business.
    Having released the numbers, Shimmel says now, "We will correct any problems and reissue the information. But with everything that we’ve looked at I’ve not found anything that leads me to believe the numbers are not reflective of the numbers that we’ve collected in the field."
    "One of the things I would caution," he says, "is with any research methodology you have more stable numbers the bigger the audience and less stability the smaller the audience is. Nothing has changed in the methodology."
   The mix-up in Simmon’s Hispanic release is the latest in a series of troubles that have plagued the media research company. Once the dominant force in magazine readership measurement, the company is now a distant second behind rival MRI.
   Simmon’s problems began when the company abandoned its "through-the-book" method of measuring magazine readership several years ago. That method--the standard for decades--required Simmons employees to carry around copies of magazines and have respondents look through them, was abandoned as too costly.
    Simmons switched to a less costly "recent-reading" method, which made it virtually indistinguishable from MRI.  Workers show index cards with magazine logos and ask survey respondents if they read the magazine and if so how many issues.
   Having lost its competitive edge, Simmons later altered its methodology further and more recently its entire mission, focusing now on marketing research rather than media.
    Simmons’ Hispanic Study, however, does not have any competitors on a national level. The study also tracks readership figures in seven local markets, where it competes with Scarborough.
    Unlike its general market media study, The National Consumer Survey, the Simmons Hispanic Study is not accredited by the Media Research Council. 
    That group evaluates research methodologies and its stamp of approval is considered vital to media researchers.
    Simmon’s Shimmel says that company officials will be issuing the results of their internal audit to advertisers and publishers within the next two weeks.