After all, while there was always a question mark about lie factors, margins of error and consistency of all other forms of media research, marketers, advertisers and media buyers have been working securely in the knowledge that ABC figures were utterly reliable, accurate and beyond reproach.
Now someone has without too much difficulty it seems, screwed the system and given the integrity of the ABC a bloody nose.
One has to ask just how many other print titles have been doing the same sort thing?
I suppose it is comforting that the ABC can at least claim that it has exposed the culprits and has let loose in no uncertain terms with its Sword of Damocles. But, the point is that the ABC system is supposed to block this sort of thing before figures get published. And at least long before advertisers and marketers spend their budgets on magazines and newspapers. To prevent them finding out months later that they had bought a pig in a poke.
In spite of the fact that adspend has increased dramatically in the past few years, leaping from the doldrums of R9 billion a year not so long ago to more than R20 billion now, the advertising environment is still massively competitive and undeniably bloody. Being an ad sales rep these days is not for the faint hearted and it's no secret that media owners indulge in every enticement possible to get a share of the pie.
Incentives from lunch, theatre tickets to sporting events, luxury getaways and all sorts of other things verge on the ludicrous at times and many a media buyer will attest to some of these, along with an occasional bout of discount madness, getting awfully close to outright bribery. It is a fair assumption that when these enticements don't work, the temptation to play games with circulation figures must be overwhelming.
The ABC is supposed to keep the print industry honest. Or, at least honest about the claims it makes about sales and circulation to its advertisers. The Media24 saga has shown that it hasn't been able to do this.
Perhaps in fairness to the ABC it has never intended to create the perception that its audited figures should be taken as absolute gospel and never, ever queried.
Personally, I think that a lot more media owners than we think have watched the Media24 saga unfold and have muttered from the sidelines; "There but for the grace of God go I...."
In a world that is full of corruption and where crime is tolerated and one in which, according to the World Trade Organisation the business sector spends R21 TRILLION a year on bribery and backhanders, it is more than naive to believe that Media24 is the only media company in which desperate executives have tried to cover the backs or load their wallets by fiddling the figures and conning the auditors.
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