PR Measurement Must Trust But Verify: Today it's comScore and Nielsen//NetRatings, tomorrow it's you.

We all know there are as many ways to fudge the numbers as there are measurement programs. Bias, whether conscious or unconscious, can and does creep into even the most careful research. Here at The Measurement Standard, we're certain that the PR profession will jump light-years ahead when everybody's measurement results are verifiable by some third party or technique.

So it is nice to see that the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) is requesting that comScore and Nielsen//NetRatings submit to a third-party audit of their web measurement processes. Although ONLINE Media Daily referred to this as "IAB Declares War On Web Measurement Firms," we see it as good news. It's about time the measurement profession begins to face up to the multitude of research sins it constantly condones. Oh, what, so your boss trusts the results when you do your own measurement of your own PR programs? Well he or she shouldn't. And neither should you.
--Bill Paarlberg