NRS homes in on online data

The NRS currently publishes newspaper and magazine readership figures for print editions.

The move will be overseen by new NRS chief executive Mike Ironside and is likely to be up and running by 2010.

The auditing body recently made a presentation of its plans to its board, whose members include the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, the Newspaper Publishers Association and the Periodical Publishers Association.

It will provide online audience estimates and demographic user profile data, detailing the online reach of magazines and newspapers.

Under the plan, the NRS will ask questions about online readership as a separate part of the main print readership-focused NRS interview.

It is thought that, like its print readership survey, the online readership initiative will use a "recall method", asking questions about respondents' interaction with websites.