The Last Paine of Measurement

July 26, 2013 -- News Group announced today that Katie Paine is no longer with the company and has vacated her position as Chief Marketing Officer. Paine will pursue her own business providing consulting services to clients in the industry, and will remain available to clients, where needed, of News Group’s main measurement subsidiaries, including Salience Insight and Social Eyez. “We wish Katie all the best in her new endeavors,” said News Group CEO Mazen Nahawi. “I will be forever grateful for my time at News Group and the opportunities it offered me,” said Paine.

Measurement Standard Readers,

I am leaving News Group International, and so this will be my last Paine of Measurement post for The Measurement Standard.  I am leaving behind one of my dearest offspring, the monthly newsletter that has both reflected and shaped the measurement industry for over a decade.

Thirteen years ago, Bill Paarlberg and I had an idea to spread the word about how to do measurement right. We would create a subscription-based newsletter dedicated entirely to measurement. We would be vendor-neutral and apply the highest editorial standards. It would be called The Measurement Standard. The first issue went out on March 21, 2002. Click on that image to the right to see our first contents page.

The recession and other factors soon convinced us to give up on trying to get people to pay for it. Nevertheless, we continued to publish it as a way to promote best measurement practices, to teach people about measurement, and, of course, as a source of leads for my measurement company, KDPaine & Partners. In March of 2007 we moved from our old website to this blog. That was 1,130 posts ago.

When we started The Measurement Standard, social media consisted of Usenet groups and an occasional Amazon review. There were no such thing as standards for anything, measurement-wise, and the best practices in PR measurement consisted mostly of message tracking and occasional sentiment analysis. 

Was that really only 11 years ago? 

Some things haven’t changed. In terms of measurement tools, the decade has seen the debate move from human coding to automated sentiment analysis and back again. Most people now agree that a combination of the two is required – which is pretty much what we were saying years ago. 

In a little more than a decade, social media has grown from the realm of geeks discussing esoterica to a major form of communication. Measurement of social media has moved from counting clicks and likes to incorporating social analytics into marketing mix modeling programs. Social media measurement standards have gone from non-existent to the launch last month of a suite of industry-agreed upon standards. Even more important was the commitment on the part of agencies and companies to adhere to these standards.

Looking back at the issues and subjects we’ve tackled over the years, I’m proud to say we were pretty much on the leading edge of many important developments:

• We first provided alternatives to AVE in our April 2007 issue. Today, dozens of organizations (see our Measurement Maven Award last month) are dropping that dinosaur of a metric and replacing it with metrics that show the value PR brings to the business.
• Also in 2007, we suggested that companies develop their own “Optimum Content Score," rather than use any sort of standardized index.
• Five years ago, we were arguing that more data didn’t bring better answers unless there was more insight.
• A year ago we were debating the value of ROI, which has become one of the most hotly debated topics in PR and social media.

As I always say, we were never wrong, we were just early…    

So the time has come for me to turn the reins over to my editor Bill Paarlberg and the leadership of News Group International. I’m sure they will continue the thought leadership that this publication has been known for and continue to spread the word about doing measurement right. 

 Wishing you all large measures of success,

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