While the Audit Bureau of Circulations' Audience-FAX is now measuring both print and online readership, its makers have acknowledged its “methodology puts newspapers at a disadvantage in comparison to other media audience measurements,” Editor & Publisher reported Thursday.

“The newspaper (readership) focus has always been on seven-day while online has always concentrated on 30-day,” Bob Cohen, president and CEO of Scarborough Research, which measures newspaper, print and online audiences for the Audience-FAX, told E&P.

Cohen told E&P that changing print measurement for Audience-FAX, which has 206 newspapers that participate in it, would be “something we'd consider, because it is unfair” and is still a work in progress. “Rather than trying to get something that would be acceptable to all 900 diverse (member) papers, we said, let's get as much good information out there as we can, and then go from there,” he said.

Another reason newspapers cannot be compared to other audience-measured media is if the newspaper's Saturday edition is not included in the readership figure, which has been “the standard industry practice for many, many years,” Cohen said, according to E&P. “There is no ideal metric in this area right now.”